This article will discuss the conversion of a python datetime.datetime to an excel serial date number. The Excel “serial date” format is actually the number of days since 1900-01-00. The strftime() function is used to convert date and time objects to their string representation. It takes one or more inputs of formatted code and returns the string representation.
Syntax:
strftime(format)
Parameters: This function accepts a parameter which is illustrated below:
- format: This is the specified format code in which the given date and time object is going to be represented.
Return values: It returns the string representation of the date or time object.
Example 1: In the example below, the current date and time are being converted into the excel serial date number. And the returned output will be in the format of ’08/23/21 15:15:53′ which is accepted by Excel as a valid date/time and allows for sorting in Excel.
Python3
# Python3 code to illustrate the conversion of# datetime.datetime to excel serial date number# Importing datetime moduleimport datetime# Calling the now() function to return# current date and timecurrent_datetime = datetime.datetime.now()# Calling the strftime() function to convert# the above current datetime into excel serial date numberprint(current_datetime.strftime('%x %X')) |
Output:
08/23/21 15:15:53
If we need the excel serial date number in the form of a date value, then this can be done using the toordinal() function.
Example 2: Serial number in a form of a date value
Python3
# Python3 code to illustrate the conversion of# datetime.datetime to excel serial date number# Importing date module from datetimefrom datetime import date# Taking the parameter from the calling functiondef convert_date_to_excel_ordinal(day, month, year): # Specifying offset value i.e., # the date value for the date of 1900-01-00 offset = 693594 current = date(year, month, day) # Calling the toordinal() function to get # the excel serial date number in the form # of date values n = current.toordinal() return (n - offset)# Calculating the excel serial date number# for the date "02-02-2021" by calling the# user defined function convert_date_to_excel_ordinal()print(convert_date_to_excel_ordinal(2, 2, 2021)) |
Output:
44229
Example: In the below example, the “2021-05-04” date is being converted into the excel serial date number with reference to the 1899-12-30 date.
Python3
# Python3 code to illustrate the conversion of# datetime.datetime to excel serial date number# Importing datetime modulefrom datetime import datetimeimport datetime as dtdef excel_date(date1): # Initializing a reference date # Note that here date is not 31st Dec but 30th! temp = dt.datetime(1899, 12, 30) delta = date1 - temp return float(delta.days) + (float(delta.seconds) / 86400)# Calculating the excel serial date number# for the date "2021-05-04" by calling the# user defined function excel_date()print(excel_date(datetime(2021, 2, 4))) |
Output:
44231.0
