Consistent way to check if an np.array is datetime-like

Question

I\'m dong some unit testing and I need to make sure a function always returns a np.datetime64-like object. However, they can be of any unit (year, day, nanosecond, etc).

Answer 1

Currently I'm using:

assert 'datetime64' in str(comp.dtype)

It leaves a bad taste in my mouth (since it relies on other behavior), but its all I can some up with.

Answer 2

You can use issubdtype:

np.issubdtype(comp.dtype, np.datetime64)