Convert JSON date string to Python datetime

Question

When translating dates to JSON, javascript is saving dates in this format:

2012-05-29T19:30:03.283Z

However, I am not sure how to get this

Answer 1

Try the following format:

%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ

For example:

>>> datetime.datetime.strptime('2012-05-29T19:30:03.283Z', '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ')
datetime.datetime(2012, 5, 29, 19, 30, 3, 283000)

The Z in the date just means that it should be interpreted as a UTC time, so ignoring it won't cause any loss of information. You can find this information here: http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime