Convert date to datetime in Python

Question

Is there a built-in method for converting a date to a datetime in Python, for example getting the datetime for the midnight of the giv

Answer 1

Today being 2016, I think the cleanest solution is provided by pandas Timestamp:

from datetime import date
import pandas as pd
d = date.today()
pd.Timestamp(d)

Timestamp is the pandas equivalent of datetime and is interchangable with it in most cases. Check:

from datetime import datetime
isinstance(pd.Timestamp(d), datetime)

But in case you really want a vanilla datetime, you can still do:

pd.Timestamp(d).to_datetime()

Timestamps are a lot more powerful than datetimes, amongst others when dealing with timezones. Actually, Timestamps are so powerful that it's a pity they are so poorly documented...