Converting different date time formats to MM/DD/YYYY format in pandas dataframe

Question

I have a date column in a pandas.DataFrame in various date time formats and stored as list object, like the following:

            date
1    [May 23rd, 2011]         


        

Answer 1

Given your sample data, with the addition of a NaT, this works:

Code:

df.date.apply(lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x).strftime('%m/%d/%Y')[0])

Test Code:

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame([
    [['']],
    [['May 23rd, 2011']],
    [['January 1st, 2010']],
    [['Apr. 15, 2008']],
    [['07-11-2013']],
    [['9/01/1995']],
    [['04/15/2000']],
    [['11/22/68']],
    [['12/1997']],
    [['08/2002']],
    [['2014']],
    [['2016']],
], columns=['date'])

df['clean_date'] = df.date.apply(
    lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x).strftime('%m/%d/%Y')[0])

print(df)

Results:

                   date  clean_date
0                    []         NaT
1      [May 23rd, 2011]  05/23/2011
2   [January 1st, 2010]  01/01/2010
3       [Apr. 15, 2008]  04/15/2008
4          [07-11-2013]  07/11/2013
5           [9/01/1995]  09/01/1995
6          [04/15/2000]  04/15/2000
7            [11/22/68]  11/22/1968
8             [12/1997]  12/01/1997
9             [08/2002]  08/01/2002
10               [2014]  01/01/2014
11               [2016]  01/01/2016