How to format date string via multiple formats in python

Question

I have three date formats: YYYY-MM-DD, DD.MM.YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY.

Is it possible to validate and parse strings such as 2014

Answer 1

Pure python:

from datetime import datetime
my_datetime = datetime.strptime('2014-05-18', '%Y-%m-%d') 
repr(my_datetime)

>>> 'datetime.datetime(2014,5,18,0,0)'

Check datetime.strptime() format documentation for more format strings.