from date/time string to seconds since epoch

[Peter Kleiweg]

Is there a safe and clean way to parse a date/time string into
seconds since epoch?

I have a string with date and time in GMT. I can get the correct
value using this:


#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
os.environ['TZ'] = 'UTC'
import time
s = 'Wed, 06 Jul 2005 16:49:38 GMT'
seconds = time.mktime(time.strptime(s, '%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %Z'))


However, I also need conversions to localtime. Setting TZ to UTC
before importing the time module won't let me do this. Changing
TZ after importing time has no effect.

 

[wittempj]

You can calculate the offset of where you are like this:

martin@ubuntu:~ $ python
Python 2.4.1 (#2, Mar 30 2005, 21:51:10)
[GCC 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-8ubuntu2)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
py> import time
py> offset = 0
py> if time.daylight:
py. offset = time.altzone
py. else:
py. offset = time.timezone
py.
py> print offset
-7200
py>

You can use time.time() to get the UTC time, then add the offset.

 

[Peter Kleiweg]

(e-mail address removed) schreef op de 6e dag van de hooimaand van het jaar 2005:

You can calculate the offset of where you are like this:

martin@ubuntu:~ $ python
Python 2.4.1 (#2, Mar 30 2005, 21:51:10)
[GCC 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-8ubuntu2)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
py> import time
py> offset = 0
py> if time.daylight:
py. offset = time.altzone
py. else:
py. offset = time.timezone
py.
py> print offset
-7200
py>

You can use time.time() to get the UTC time, then add the offset.

The offset is for this moment, not for the date and time of the
string parsed.