CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythondatetime-format
user7082868
user7082868

Reputation:

Python: Date/time format

I'm trying to parse a file that contains, a bunch of entries which, among other fields, contains a date in its last column.

Walmart,Retail,482,-0.7,2200000,Arkansas,31-10-1969

I've tried doing this:

from datetime import datetime

def readdata (fname):

    print ('*'*5,'Reading Records From File',fname,'*'*5)

    data = []

    readf = open(fname,'r')
    for line in readf:       
        name1, name2, No_1, No_2, No_3, name3, date1 = line.split(',')
        date = datetime.strptime(date1,'%d-%m-%Y')
        Number1 = float(No_1)
        Number2 = float(No_2)
        Number3 = int(No_3)

        rec = [name1,name2,Number1,Number2,Number3,name3,date]
        data.append(rec)
    readf.close()
    print('\nDone.\n\n')
    return data

But when I try to convert the last field of the line (the date) to an actual datetime.datetime instance, I get the following error:

data_string[found.end():])
    ValueError: unconverted data remains:

the full error stack is 

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Keitha Pokiha\Desktop\New folder\Program 2.py", line 42, in <module>
    main()
  File "C:\Users\Keitha Pokiha\Desktop\New folder\Program 2.py", line 39, in main
    data = readdata('fname.txt')
  File "C:\Users\Keitha Pokiha\Desktop\New folder\Program 2.py", line 12, in readdata
    date = datetime.strptime(date1,'%d-%m-%Y')
  File "C:\Users\Keitha Pokiha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python35-32\lib\_strptime.py", line 510, in _strptime_datetime
    tt, fraction = _strptime(data_string, format)
  File "C:\Users\Keitha Pokiha\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python35-32\lib\_strptime.py", line 346, in _strptime
    data_string[found.end():])
ValueError: unconverted data remains:

Upvotes: 1

Views: 416

Answers (1)

Savir
Savir

Reputation: 18438

The problem that you seem to be having is that when you do for line in readf:, line ends with the carriage return (special character \n, which signals a new line) so instead of trying to convert 31-10-1969 to datetime, Python is trying to convert 31-10-1969\n, using the format %d-%m-%Y Therefore, when it finishes parsing the year (%Y) it finds an unexpected \n and that's why you're seeing that error: because it doesn't know what to do with it.

You have several options to fix this. Below you'll find two that "fix" the read line, and a third that "fixes" the format expected by datetime:

  1. You can remove that \n it using rstrip after you've read the line:

    name1, name2, No_1, No_2, No_3, name3, date1 = line.rstrip().split(',')
date = datetime.strptime(date1, '%d-%m-%Y')

  2. Or you could use the method explained here and remove the last character in the line, like this:

    name1, name2, No_1, No_2, No_3, name3, date1 = line[:-1].split(',')

  3. Or you could tell the datetime module to expect a newline as well in the string:

    name1, name2, No_1, No_2, No_3, name3, date1 = line.split(',')
date = datetime.strptime(date1, '%d-%m-%Y\n')

I'd use 1., because if your line doesn't end with a newline character, everything will still work.

PS (as a side note): If you're reading a comma-separated-value file, I'd strongly suggest you make use of the csv.reader module.

Upvotes: 2

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