import datetime v s from datetime import datetime

Question

I have a script that needs to execute the following at different lines in the script   today date   datetime date today   date time   datetime strp date time string    Y- m- d  H  M     In my import statements I have the following   from datetime import datetime import datetime   I get the following error   AttributeError   module  object has no attribute  strp    If I change the order of the import statements to   import datetime from datetime import datetime   I get the following error   AttributeError   method descriptor  object has no attribute  today    If I again change the import statement to   import datetime   I get the following error   AttributeError   module  object has no attribute  strp    What is going on here and how do I get both to work

User · Accepted Answer

Your trouble is that you have some code that is expecting datetime to be a reference to the datetime module and other code that is expecting datetime to be a reference to the datetime class. Obviously, it can't be both.

When you do:

from datetime import datetime
import datetime

You are first setting datetime to be a reference to the class, then immediately setting it to be a reference to the module. When you do it the other way around, it's the same thing, but it ends up being a reference to the class.

You need to rename one of these references. For example:

import datetime as dt
from datetime import datetime

Then you can change references in the form datetime.xxxx that refer to the module to dt.xxxx.

Or else just import datetime and change all references to use the module name. In other words, if something just says datetime(...) you need to change that reference to datetime.datetime.

Python has a fair bit of this kind of thing in its library, unfortunately. If they followed their own naming guidelines in PEP 8, the datetime class would be named Datetime and there'd be no problem using both datetime to mean the module and Datetime to mean the class.

User · Answer

datetime is a module which contains a type that is also called datetime   You appear to want to use both  but you re trying to use the same name to refer to both   The type and the module are two different things and you can t refer to both of them with the name datetime in your program   If you need to use anything from the module besides the datetime type  as you apparently do   then you need to import the module with import datetime   You can then refer to the  date  type as datetime date and the datetime type as datetime datetime   You could also do this   from datetime import datetime  date today date   date today   date time   datetime strp date time string    Y- m- d  H  M     Here you import only the names you need  the datetime and date types  and import them directly so you don t need to refer to the module itself at all   Ultimately you have to decide what names from the module you need to use  and how best to use them   If you are only using one or two things from the module  e g   just the date and datetime types   it may be okay to import those names directly   If you re using many things  it s probably better to import the module and access the things inside it using dot syntax  to avoid cluttering your global namespace with date-specific names   Note also that  if you do import the module name itself  you can shorten the name to ease typing   import datetime as dt today date   dt date today   date time   dt datetime strp date time string    Y- m- d  H  M

User · Answer

You cannot use both statements  the datetime module contains a datetime type  The local name datetime in your own module can only refer to one or the other   Use only import datetime  then make sure that you always use datetime datetime to refer to the contained type   import datetime  today date   datetime date today   date time   datetime datetime strptime date time string    Y- m- d  H  M     Now datetime is the module  and you refer to the contained types via that   Alternatively  import all types you need from the module   from datetime import date  datetime  today date   date today   date time   datetime strptime date time string    Y- m- d  H  M     Here datetime is the type from the module  date is another type  from the same module

User · Answer

The difference between from datetime import datetime and normal import datetime is that   you are dealing with a module at one time and a class at other   The strptime function only exists in the datetime class so you have to import the class with the module otherwise you have to specify datetime twice when calling this function   The thing here is that   the class name and the module name has been given the same name so it creates a bit of confusuion

User · Answer

from datetime import datetime timedelta today datetime today   print  Todays Date   today  yesterday today-datetime timedelta days 1  print  Yesterday date   yesterday  tommorrow today datetime timedelta days 1  print  Tommorrow Date   tommorrow

User · Answer

try this   import datetime from datetime import datetime as dt  today date   datetime date today   date time   dt strptime date time string    Y- m- d  H  M     strp   doesn t exist  I think you mean strptime

[python] "import datetime" v.s. "from datetime import datetime"

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