Fix “AttributeError: module ‘DateTime’ has no attribute ‘strptime'” in Python

The Python error “AttributeError: module ‘DateTime’ has no attribute ‘strptime'” occurs when you call the strptime() method on Python’s datetime module – rather than the datetime class inside it.

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Here’s what it looks like:

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "", line 1, in 
AttributeError: module 'datetime' has no attribute 'strptime'

If you get the above error, your code probably looks similar to this:

import datetime

date_string = '25 Dcember, 2022'
datetime_object = datetime.strptime(date_string, '%d %B, %Y')

print(datetime_object)
print(type(datetime_object))

The reason is strptime() method isn't a function defined inside the datetime module. It's a method implemented by a class named datetime that happens to be inside the datetime module.

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If you're wondering what a module is in Python, here's a quick refresher:

Python lets you reuse functions, classes, etc., by defining them in a file you can import into any code (or module). This .py file is known as a Python module.

The datetime module contains classes for manipulating dates and times. It contains a class definition of the same name (datetime), which implements the strptime() method. 

I know! It's like there was a city in Canada named Canada. Imagine sending a postcard there!

How to fix it?

You have two options to fix "module 'DateTime' has no attribute 'strptime'" error:

1. Call the method on the class datetime
2. import the class datetime directly

Call the method on the class datetime: One way to fix the error is to call the strptime() method on the datetime class - This way, you won't have to change your import statement.

The strptime() method accepts a date string (e.g., 25 December, 2022) and returns a datetime object; It parses the date string based on the provided format. In the following code, we parse 25 December, 2022 (🎄) into a datetime object:

import datetime

date_string = '25 December, 2022'
datetime_object = datetime.datetime.strptime(date_string, '%d %B, %Y')

print(datetime_object)

datetime.datetime refers to the datetime class in the datetime module.

Here's the output:

2022-12-25 00:00:00
""

Import the datetime class directly: If you prefer not to touch your code, you can edit your import statement instead:

from datetime import datetime

date_string = '25 December, 2022'
datetime_object = datetime.strptime(date_string, '%d %B, %Y')

print(datetime_object)
print(type(datetime_object))

In the above code, we explicitly imported the datetime class from the datetime module. As a result, any datetime instance points to the datetime class.

By the way, always avoid naming a variable datetime because it'll override the reference to the datetime class. And you'll get a similar attribute error if you call the strptime() method.

Alright, I think that does it! I hope you found this quick guide helpful.

Thanks for reading.

Reza Lavarian Hey 👋 I'm a software engineer, an author, and an open-source contributor. I enjoy helping people (including myself) decode the complex side of technology. I share my findings on Twitter: @rezalavarian