AttributeError Module ‘datetime’ Has No Attribute ‘strptime’ Solved

The module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’ error is a type of AttributeError which occurs when the ‘strptime’ method is directly tried to access on the ‘datetime’ module.

This article is a walkthrough to find a probable solution to solve the error.

What is an AttributeError?

The AttributeError is a type of error that occurs in the program when the attribute access fails. It occurs when we try to access the methods or attributes which are not present in the datatype. Simply put it it arises when we apply a function on a different data type than the original one.

Syntax: –

a=15  
a.append("javatpoint")  

The above code will raise the AttributeError as variable a uses an append function here as there is no attribute as append in the integer data type.

What is module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’?

The module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’, an AttributeError arises when ‘strptime’ is tried to used directly on the ‘datetime’ module rather than on ‘datetime’ class.

Syntax:

import datetime

date_string = '11 July, 2023'
datetime_object = datetime.strptime(date_string, '%d %B, %Y')

print(datetime_object)
print(type(datetime_object))

The above code will raise the module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’ AttributeError. The error will be raised because the strptime() can only be defined inside the datetime class and not in ‘datetime’ module. But here it is defined inside the ‘datetime’ class present inside a ‘datetime’ module.

Solution to solve the error

The module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’ AttributeError can be resolved by following one of the following methods.

1. Calling the ‘strptime’ method on the ‘datetime’ class instead

In this method the module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’ AttributeError can be resolved by calling ‘strptime’ on the ‘datetime’ class instead of the ‘datetime’ module.

Sytntax: –

import datetime

dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(
  "11/07/23",
  "%d/%m/%y"
)

print(dt) 

2. Importing ‘datetime’ class directly

In this method the module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’ AttributeError can be resolved by changing the import statement from ‘datetime’ module to ‘datetime’ class, so that you don’t have to use ‘datetime.datetime’ function which can make the code very confusing.

from datetime import datetime

dt = datetime.strptime("11/07/23", "%d/%m/%y")

print(dt) 

Here the ‘datetime’ class has been imported from the ‘datetime’ module and the ‘strptime’ method is called on the class.

3. Using aliases

In this method, the aliases are used to make it easier to read the code to help you find a solution for module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’ AttributeError. Here an alias is used in the import statement that the ‘datetime’ class is aliased to ‘dt’. Therefore instead of calling ‘datetime.strptime’, the ‘dt.strptime’ is used.

from datetime import datetime as dt

result = dt.strptime("11/07/23", "%d/%m/%y")

print(result)

4. Checking the attributes of an object

This method uses the ‘dir()’ function method to pass the imported module to resolve the module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’ AttributeError. When a module object is passed to the dir() function, it returns a list of module’s attributes.

Syntax:-

from datetime import datetime

 [... 'strptime', ...]

print(dir(datetime))

Here the ‘datetime’ module do not have any attribute named ‘strptime’, but has an attribute ‘datetime’ which can be used to call the ‘strptime()’ method. Therefore the ‘strptime()’ method will be a working attribute in one of the module’s classes. So here the ‘datetime’ class is imported from the ‘datetime’ module and passed on to ‘dir()’ function therefore the ‘strptime()’ method has appeared in the list of attributes.

By using one of the above solutions you will be able to resolve the module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’ AttributeError.

FAQs

Conclusion

This guide here has all the information that can help you find the causes for module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘strptime’ AttributeError and the probable solutions that can help you resolve the error without any issues.

References

1. AttributeError
2. Datetime Object