Issue when trying to apply format to date column pandas

user_16584539 0
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I am trying to set date format to a pandas dataframe column.

test['Date']=pd.to_datetime(test['Date'], format='%d-%m-%Y')

However, I get this error:

  ValueError: time data '13/04/2021 15:21' does not match format '%d-%m
m-%Y' (match)

Why I cannot format this date column to day-month-year format?

pandas python
2 Answers

You can either leave the format keyword out entirely, and pandas will automatically detect the format, or change it to match the format indicated. I'd suggest leaving it out, in case your column has different formats included.

But this would work for the value indicated:

test['Date'] = pd.to_datetime(test['Date'], format='%d/%m/%Y %H:%M')
user_88968550

IIUC, you want to keep only the date part, so truncate your string before to_datetime:

test = pd.DataFrame({'Date': ['13/04/2021 15:21']})
test['Date'] = pd.to_datetime(test['Date'].str[:10], format='%d/%m/%Y')
print(test)

# Output:
        Date
0 2021-04-13
user_152399510
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