How to convert local time string to UTC

Question

How do I convert a datetime string in local time to a string in UTC time   I m sure I ve done this before  but can t find it and SO will hopefully help me  and others  do that in future   Clarification   For example  if I have 2008-09-17 14 02 00 in my local timezone   10   I d like to generate a string with the equivalent UTC time  2008-09-17 04 02 00   Also  from http   lucumr pocoo org 2011 7 15 eppur-si-muove   note that in general this isn t possible as with DST and other issues there is no unique conversion from local time to UTC time

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How about -   time strftime   Y- m- dT H  M  SZ   time gmtime seconds     if seconds is None then it converts the local time to UTC time else converts the passed in time to UTC

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I have this code in one of my projects   from datetime import datetime    datetime timezone works in newer versions of python try      from datetime import timezone     utc tz   timezone utc except      import pytz     utc tz   pytz utc  def  to utc date string ts         type  Union date datetime    - gt  str        coerce datetimes to UTC  assume localtime if nothing is given         if  isinstance ts  datetime            try                 in python 3 6 and higher  ts astimezone   will assume a                naive timestamp is localtime  and so do we              ts   ts astimezone utc tz          except                 in python 2 7 and 3 5  ts astimezone   will fail on                naive timestamps  but we d like to assume they are                localtime             import tzlocal             ts   tzlocal get localzone   localize ts  astimezone utc tz      return ts strftime   Y m dT H M SZ

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I found the best answer on another question here  It only uses python built-in libraries and does not require you to input your local timezone  a requirement in my case    import time import calendar  local time   time strptime  2018-12-13T09 32 00 000     Y- m- dT H  M  S  f   local seconds   time mktime local time  utc time   time gmtime local seconds    I m reposting the answer here since this question pops up in google instead of the linked question depending on the search keywords

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In python 3 9 0  after you ve parsed your local time local time into datetime datetime object  just use local time astimezone datetime timezone utc

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I ve had the most success with python-dateutil   from dateutil import tz  def datetime to utc date          Returns date in UTC w o tzinfo        return date astimezone tz gettz  UTC    replace tzinfo None  if date tzinfo else date

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If you already have a datetime object my dt you can change it to UTC with  datetime datetime utcfromtimestamp my dt timestamp

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Here s a summary of common Python time conversions   Some methods drop fractions of seconds  and are marked with  s   An explicit formula such as ts    d - epoch    unit can be used instead  thanks jfs     struct time  UTC    POSIX  s  calendar timegm struct time  Na  ve datetime  local    POSIX  s  calendar timegm stz localize dt  is dst None  utctimetuple    exception during DST transitions  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  UTC    POSIX  s  calendar timegm dt utctimetuple    Aware datetime   POSIX  s  calendar timegm dt utctimetuple    POSIX   struct time  UTC  s  time gmtime t  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  local    struct time  UTC  s  stz localize dt  is dst None  utctimetuple   exception during DST transitions  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  UTC    struct time  UTC  s  dt utctimetuple   Aware datetime   struct time  UTC  s  dt utctimetuple   POSIX   Na  ve datetime  local  datetime fromtimestamp t  None  may fail in certain conditions  see comment from jfs below  struct time  UTC    Na  ve datetime  local  s  datetime datetime struct time  6   tzinfo UTC  astimezone tz  replace tzinfo None  can t represent leap seconds  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  UTC    Na  ve datetime  local  dt replace tzinfo UTC  astimezone tz  replace tzinfo None  Aware datetime   Na  ve datetime  local  dt astimezone tz  replace tzinfo None  POSIX   Na  ve datetime  UTC  datetime utcfromtimestamp t  struct time  UTC    Na  ve datetime  UTC  s  datetime datetime  struct time  6   can t represent leap seconds  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  local    Na  ve datetime  UTC  stz localize dt  is dst None  astimezone UTC  replace tzinfo None  exception during DST transitions  see comment from jfs  Aware datetime   Na  ve datetime  UTC  dt astimezone UTC  replace tzinfo None  POSIX   Aware datetime datetime fromtimestamp t  tz  may fail for non-pytz timezones  struct time  UTC    Aware datetime  s  datetime datetime struct time  6   tzinfo UTC  astimezone tz  can t represent leap seconds  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  local    Aware datetime stz localize dt  is dst None  exception during DST transitions  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  UTC    Aware datetime dt replace tzinfo UTC    Source  taaviburns ca

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I have this code in one of my projects   from datetime import datetime    datetime timezone works in newer versions of python try      from datetime import timezone     utc tz   timezone utc except      import pytz     utc tz   pytz utc  def  to utc date string ts         type  Union date datetime    - gt  str        coerce datetimes to UTC  assume localtime if nothing is given         if  isinstance ts  datetime            try                 in python 3 6 and higher  ts astimezone   will assume a                naive timestamp is localtime  and so do we              ts   ts astimezone utc tz          except                 in python 2 7 and 3 5  ts astimezone   will fail on                naive timestamps  but we d like to assume they are                localtime             import tzlocal             ts   tzlocal get localzone   localize ts  astimezone utc tz      return ts strftime   Y m dT H M SZ

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Thanks  rofly  the full conversion from string to string is as follows   time strftime   Y- m- d  H  M  S                  time gmtime time mktime time strptime  2008-09-17 14 04 00                                                          Y- m- d  H  M  S        My summary of the time calendar functions   time strptime string --  tuple  no timezone applied  so matches string   time mktime local time tuple --  seconds since epoch  always local time   time gmtime seconds since epoch --  tuple in UTC  and   calendar timegm tuple in UTC --  seconds since epoch  time localtime seconds since epoch --  tuple in local timezone

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def local to utc t       secs   time mktime t      return time gmtime secs   def utc to local t       secs   calendar timegm t      return time localtime secs    Source  http   feihonghsu blogspot com 2008 02 converting-from-local-time-to-utc html  Example usage from bd808  If your source is a datetime datetime object t  call as   local to utc t timetuple

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For getting around day-light saving  etc   None of the above answers particularly helped me  The code below works for GMT   def get utc from local date time  local tz None       assert date time   class     name       datetime      if local tz is None          local tz   pytz timezone settings TIME ZONE    Django eg   Europe London      local time   local tz normalize local tz localize date time       return local time astimezone pytz utc   import pytz from datetime import datetime  summer 11 am   datetime 2011  7  1  11  get utc from local summer 11 am   gt  gt  gt datetime datetime 2011  7  1  10  0  tzinfo  lt UTC gt    winter 11 am   datetime 2011  11  11  11  get utc from local winter 11 am   gt  gt  gt datetime datetime 2011  11  11  11  0  tzinfo  lt UTC gt

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def local to utc t       secs   time mktime t      return time gmtime secs   def utc to local t       secs   calendar timegm t      return time localtime secs    Source  http   feihonghsu blogspot com 2008 02 converting-from-local-time-to-utc html  Example usage from bd808  If your source is a datetime datetime object t  call as   local to utc t timetuple

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First  parse the string into a naive datetime object  This is an instance of datetime datetime with no attached timezone information  See its documentation  Use the pytz module  which comes with a full list of time zones   UTC  Figure out what the local timezone is  construct a timezone object from it  and manipulate and attach it to the naive datetime  Finally  use datetime astimezone   method to convert the datetime to UTC  Source code  using local timezone  quot America Los Angeles quot   for the string  quot 2001-2-3 10 11 12 quot   from datetime import datetime    import pytz  local   pytz timezone  quot America Los Angeles quot   naive   datetime strptime  quot 2001-2-3 10 11 12 quot    quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot   local dt   local localize naive  is dst None  utc dt   local dt astimezone pytz utc   From there  you can use the strftime   method to format the UTC datetime as needed  utc dt strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot

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How about -   time strftime   Y- m- dT H  M  SZ   time gmtime seconds     if seconds is None then it converts the local time to UTC time else converts the passed in time to UTC

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NOTE -- As of 2020 you should not be using  utcnow   or  utcfromtimestamp xxx    As you ve presumably moved on to python3 you should be using timezone aware datetime objects   gt  gt  gt  from datetime import timezone  gt  gt  gt  dt now   datetime now tz timezone utc   gt  gt  gt  dt ts   datetime fromtimestamp 1571595618 0  tz timezone utc   for details see  see  https   blog ganssle io articles 2019 11 utcnow html original answer  from 2010   The datetime module s utcnow   function can be used to obtain the current UTC time   gt  gt  gt  import datetime  gt  gt  gt  utc datetime   datetime datetime utcnow    gt  gt  gt  utc datetime strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot    2010-02-01 06 59 19   As the link mentioned above by Tom  http   lucumr pocoo org 2011 7 15 eppur-si-muove   says   UTC is a timezone without daylight saving time and still a timezone without configuration changes in the past  Always measure and store time in UTC  If you need to record where the time was taken  store that separately  Do not store the local time   timezone information   NOTE - If any of your data is in a region that uses DST  use pytz and take a look at John Millikin s answer  If you want to obtain the UTC time from a given string and your lucky enough to be in a region in the world that either doesn t use DST  or you have data that is only offset from UTC without DST applied  -- gt  using local time as the basis for the offset value   gt  gt  gt    Obtain the UTC Offset for the current system   gt  gt  gt  UTC OFFSET TIMEDELTA   datetime datetime utcnow   - datetime datetime now    gt  gt  gt  local datetime   datetime datetime strptime  quot 2008-09-17 14 04 00 quot    quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot    gt  gt  gt  result utc datetime   local datetime   UTC OFFSET TIMEDELTA  gt  gt  gt  result utc datetime strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot    2008-09-17 04 04 00   -- gt  Or  from a known offset  using datetime timedelta     gt  gt  gt  UTC OFFSET   10  gt  gt  gt  result utc datetime   local datetime - datetime timedelta hours UTC OFFSET   gt  gt  gt  result utc datetime strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot    2008-09-17 04 04 00   UPDATE  Since python 3 2 datetime timezone is available   You can generate a timezone aware datetime object with the command below  import datetime  timezone aware dt   datetime datetime now datetime timezone utc   If your ready to take on timezone conversions go read this  https   medium com  eleroy 10-things-you-need-to-know-about-date-and-time-in-python-with-datetime-pytz-dateutil-timedelta-309bfbafb3f7

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One more example with pytz  but includes localize    which saved my day   import pytz  datetime utc   pytz utc fmt     Y- m- d  H  M  S  amsterdam   pytz timezone  Europe Amsterdam    dt   datetime datetime strptime  2012-04-06 10 00 00   fmt  am dt   amsterdam localize dt  print am dt astimezone utc  strftime fmt   2012-04-06 08 00 00

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if you prefer datetime datetime   dt   datetime strptime  2008-09-17 14 04 00    Y- m- d  H  M  S   utc struct time   time gmtime time mktime dt timetuple     utc dt   datetime fromtimestamp time mktime utc struct time   print dt strftime   Y- m- d  H  M  S

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I found the best answer on another question here  It only uses python built-in libraries and does not require you to input your local timezone  a requirement in my case    import time import calendar  local time   time strptime  2018-12-13T09 32 00 000     Y- m- dT H  M  S  f   local seconds   time mktime local time  utc time   time gmtime local seconds    I m reposting the answer here since this question pops up in google instead of the linked question depending on the search keywords

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For getting around day-light saving  etc   None of the above answers particularly helped me  The code below works for GMT   def get utc from local date time  local tz None       assert date time   class     name       datetime      if local tz is None          local tz   pytz timezone settings TIME ZONE    Django eg   Europe London      local time   local tz normalize local tz localize date time       return local time astimezone pytz utc   import pytz from datetime import datetime  summer 11 am   datetime 2011  7  1  11  get utc from local summer 11 am   gt  gt  gt datetime datetime 2011  7  1  10  0  tzinfo  lt UTC gt    winter 11 am   datetime 2011  11  11  11  get utc from local winter 11 am   gt  gt  gt datetime datetime 2011  11  11  11  0  tzinfo  lt UTC gt

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One more example with pytz  but includes localize    which saved my day   import pytz  datetime utc   pytz utc fmt     Y- m- d  H  M  S  amsterdam   pytz timezone  Europe Amsterdam    dt   datetime datetime strptime  2012-04-06 10 00 00   fmt  am dt   amsterdam localize dt  print am dt astimezone utc  strftime fmt   2012-04-06 08 00 00

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def local to utc t       secs   time mktime t      return time gmtime secs   def utc to local t       secs   calendar timegm t      return time localtime secs    Source  http   feihonghsu blogspot com 2008 02 converting-from-local-time-to-utc html  Example usage from bd808  If your source is a datetime datetime object t  call as   local to utc t timetuple

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Thanks  rofly  the full conversion from string to string is as follows   time strftime   Y- m- d  H  M  S                  time gmtime time mktime time strptime  2008-09-17 14 04 00                                                          Y- m- d  H  M  S        My summary of the time calendar functions   time strptime string --  tuple  no timezone applied  so matches string   time mktime local time tuple --  seconds since epoch  always local time   time gmtime seconds since epoch --  tuple in UTC  and   calendar timegm tuple in UTC --  seconds since epoch  time localtime seconds since epoch --  tuple in local timezone

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Here s a summary of common Python time conversions   Some methods drop fractions of seconds  and are marked with  s   An explicit formula such as ts    d - epoch    unit can be used instead  thanks jfs     struct time  UTC    POSIX  s  calendar timegm struct time  Na  ve datetime  local    POSIX  s  calendar timegm stz localize dt  is dst None  utctimetuple    exception during DST transitions  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  UTC    POSIX  s  calendar timegm dt utctimetuple    Aware datetime   POSIX  s  calendar timegm dt utctimetuple    POSIX   struct time  UTC  s  time gmtime t  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  local    struct time  UTC  s  stz localize dt  is dst None  utctimetuple   exception during DST transitions  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  UTC    struct time  UTC  s  dt utctimetuple   Aware datetime   struct time  UTC  s  dt utctimetuple   POSIX   Na  ve datetime  local  datetime fromtimestamp t  None  may fail in certain conditions  see comment from jfs below  struct time  UTC    Na  ve datetime  local  s  datetime datetime struct time  6   tzinfo UTC  astimezone tz  replace tzinfo None  can t represent leap seconds  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  UTC    Na  ve datetime  local  dt replace tzinfo UTC  astimezone tz  replace tzinfo None  Aware datetime   Na  ve datetime  local  dt astimezone tz  replace tzinfo None  POSIX   Na  ve datetime  UTC  datetime utcfromtimestamp t  struct time  UTC    Na  ve datetime  UTC  s  datetime datetime  struct time  6   can t represent leap seconds  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  local    Na  ve datetime  UTC  stz localize dt  is dst None  astimezone UTC  replace tzinfo None  exception during DST transitions  see comment from jfs  Aware datetime   Na  ve datetime  UTC  dt astimezone UTC  replace tzinfo None  POSIX   Aware datetime datetime fromtimestamp t  tz  may fail for non-pytz timezones  struct time  UTC    Aware datetime  s  datetime datetime struct time  6   tzinfo UTC  astimezone tz  can t represent leap seconds  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  local    Aware datetime stz localize dt  is dst None  exception during DST transitions  see comment from jfs  Na  ve datetime  UTC    Aware datetime dt replace tzinfo UTC    Source  taaviburns ca

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I ve had the most success with python-dateutil   from dateutil import tz  def datetime to utc date          Returns date in UTC w o tzinfo        return date astimezone tz gettz  UTC    replace tzinfo None  if date tzinfo else date

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In python3   pip install python-dateutil  from dateutil parser import tz  mydt astimezone tz gettz  UTC    replace tzinfo None

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def local to utc t       secs   time mktime t      return time gmtime secs   def utc to local t       secs   calendar timegm t      return time localtime secs    Source  http   feihonghsu blogspot com 2008 02 converting-from-local-time-to-utc html  Example usage from bd808  If your source is a datetime datetime object t  call as   local to utc t timetuple

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Using http   crsmithdev com arrow   arrowObj   arrow Arrow strptime  2017-02-20 10 00 00     Y- m- d  H  M  S     US Eastern    arrowObj to  UTC   or arrowObj to  local      This library makes life easy

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How about -   time strftime   Y- m- dT H  M  SZ   time gmtime seconds     if seconds is None then it converts the local time to UTC time else converts the passed in time to UTC

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First  parse the string into a naive datetime object  This is an instance of datetime datetime with no attached timezone information  See its documentation  Use the pytz module  which comes with a full list of time zones   UTC  Figure out what the local timezone is  construct a timezone object from it  and manipulate and attach it to the naive datetime  Finally  use datetime astimezone   method to convert the datetime to UTC  Source code  using local timezone  quot America Los Angeles quot   for the string  quot 2001-2-3 10 11 12 quot   from datetime import datetime    import pytz  local   pytz timezone  quot America Los Angeles quot   naive   datetime strptime  quot 2001-2-3 10 11 12 quot    quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot   local dt   local localize naive  is dst None  utc dt   local dt astimezone pytz utc   From there  you can use the strftime   method to format the UTC datetime as needed  utc dt strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot

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Simple  I did it like this    gt  gt  gt  utc delta   datetime utcnow  -datetime now    gt  gt  gt  utc time   datetime 2008  9  17  14  2  0    utc delta  gt  gt  gt  print utc time  2008-09-17 19 01 59 999996   Fancy Implementation  If you want to get fancy  you can turn this into a functor   class to utc        utc delta   datetime utcnow   - datetime now        def   call   cls  t           return t   cls utc delta   Result     gt  gt  gt  utc converter   to utc    gt  gt  gt  print utc converter datetime 2008  9  17  14  2  0    2008-09-17 19 01 59 999996

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This thread seems to be missing an option available since Python 3 6  datetime astimezone tz None  can be used to get an aware datetime object representing local time  docs   This can then easily be converted to UTC  from datetime import datetime  timezone s    quot 2008-09-17 14 02 00 quot     to datetime object  dt   datetime fromisoformat s    Python 3 7    I m on time zone Europe Berlin  CEST UTC 2 during summer 2008 dt   dt astimezone   print dt    2008-09-17 14 02 00 02 00       and to UTC  dtutc   dt astimezone timezone utc  print dtutc    2008-09-17 12 02 00 00 00  There is one caveat though  see astimezone None  gives aware datetime  unaware of DST

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If you already have a datetime object my dt you can change it to UTC with  datetime datetime utcfromtimestamp my dt timestamp

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How about -   time strftime   Y- m- dT H  M  SZ   time gmtime seconds     if seconds is None then it converts the local time to UTC time else converts the passed in time to UTC

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Briefly  to convert any datetime date to UTC time  from datetime import datetime  def to utc date       return datetime  date utctimetuple    6     Let s explain with an example  First  we need to create a datetime from the string   gt  gt  gt  date   datetime strptime  quot 11 Feb 2011 17 33 54 -0800 quot    quot  d  b  Y  H  M  S  z quot    Then  we can call the function   gt  gt  gt  to utc date  datetime datetime 2011  2  12  1  33  54   Step by step how the function works   gt  gt  gt  date utctimetuple   time struct time tm year 2011  tm mon 2  tm mday 12  tm hour 1  tm min 33  tm sec 54  tm wday 5  tm yday 43  tm isdst 0   gt  gt  gt  date utctimetuple    6   2011  2  12  1  33  54   gt  gt  gt  datetime  date utctimetuple    6   datetime datetime 2011  2  12  1  33  54

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You can do it with    gt  gt  gt  from time import strftime  gmtime  localtime  gt  gt  gt  strftime   H  M  S   gmtime     UTC time  gt  gt  gt  strftime   H  M  S   localtime      localtime

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First  parse the string into a naive datetime object  This is an instance of datetime datetime with no attached timezone information  See its documentation  Use the pytz module  which comes with a full list of time zones   UTC  Figure out what the local timezone is  construct a timezone object from it  and manipulate and attach it to the naive datetime  Finally  use datetime astimezone   method to convert the datetime to UTC  Source code  using local timezone  quot America Los Angeles quot   for the string  quot 2001-2-3 10 11 12 quot   from datetime import datetime    import pytz  local   pytz timezone  quot America Los Angeles quot   naive   datetime strptime  quot 2001-2-3 10 11 12 quot    quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot   local dt   local localize naive  is dst None  utc dt   local dt astimezone pytz utc   From there  you can use the strftime   method to format the UTC datetime as needed  utc dt strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot

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Using http   crsmithdev com arrow   arrowObj   arrow Arrow strptime  2017-02-20 10 00 00     Y- m- d  H  M  S     US Eastern    arrowObj to  UTC   or arrowObj to  local      This library makes life easy

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First  parse the string into a naive datetime object  This is an instance of datetime datetime with no attached timezone information  See its documentation  Use the pytz module  which comes with a full list of time zones   UTC  Figure out what the local timezone is  construct a timezone object from it  and manipulate and attach it to the naive datetime  Finally  use datetime astimezone   method to convert the datetime to UTC  Source code  using local timezone  quot America Los Angeles quot   for the string  quot 2001-2-3 10 11 12 quot   from datetime import datetime    import pytz  local   pytz timezone  quot America Los Angeles quot   naive   datetime strptime  quot 2001-2-3 10 11 12 quot    quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot   local dt   local localize naive  is dst None  utc dt   local dt astimezone pytz utc   From there  you can use the strftime   method to format the UTC datetime as needed  utc dt strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot

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You can do it with    gt  gt  gt  from time import strftime  gmtime  localtime  gt  gt  gt  strftime   H  M  S   gmtime     UTC time  gt  gt  gt  strftime   H  M  S   localtime      localtime

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if you prefer datetime datetime   dt   datetime strptime  2008-09-17 14 04 00    Y- m- d  H  M  S   utc struct time   time gmtime time mktime dt timetuple     utc dt   datetime fromtimestamp time mktime utc struct time   print dt strftime   Y- m- d  H  M  S

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Briefly  to convert any datetime date to UTC time  from datetime import datetime  def to utc date       return datetime  date utctimetuple    6     Let s explain with an example  First  we need to create a datetime from the string   gt  gt  gt  date   datetime strptime  quot 11 Feb 2011 17 33 54 -0800 quot    quot  d  b  Y  H  M  S  z quot    Then  we can call the function   gt  gt  gt  to utc date  datetime datetime 2011  2  12  1  33  54   Step by step how the function works   gt  gt  gt  date utctimetuple   time struct time tm year 2011  tm mon 2  tm mday 12  tm hour 1  tm min 33  tm sec 54  tm wday 5  tm yday 43  tm isdst 0   gt  gt  gt  date utctimetuple    6   2011  2  12  1  33  54   gt  gt  gt  datetime  date utctimetuple    6   datetime datetime 2011  2  12  1  33  54

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import time  import datetime  def Local2UTC LocalTime        EpochSecond   time mktime LocalTime timetuple        utcTime   datetime datetime utcfromtimestamp EpochSecond       return utcTime   gt  gt  gt  LocalTime   datetime datetime now     gt  gt  gt  UTCTime   Local2UTC LocalTime    gt  gt  gt  LocalTime ctime     Thu Feb  3 22 33 46 2011    gt  gt  gt  UTCTime ctime     Fri Feb  4 05 33 46 2011

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import time  import datetime  def Local2UTC LocalTime        EpochSecond   time mktime LocalTime timetuple        utcTime   datetime datetime utcfromtimestamp EpochSecond       return utcTime   gt  gt  gt  LocalTime   datetime datetime now     gt  gt  gt  UTCTime   Local2UTC LocalTime    gt  gt  gt  LocalTime ctime     Thu Feb  3 22 33 46 2011    gt  gt  gt  UTCTime ctime     Fri Feb  4 05 33 46 2011

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I m having good luck with dateutil  which is widely recommended on SO for other related questions    from datetime import   from dateutil import   from dateutil tz import      METHOD 1  Hardcode zones  utc zone   tz gettz  UTC   local zone   tz gettz  America Chicago     METHOD 2  Auto-detect zones  utc zone   tz tzutc   local zone   tz tzlocal      Convert time string to datetime local time   datetime strptime  2008-09-17 14 02 00     Y- m- d  H  M  S      Tell the datetime object that it s in local time zone since    datetime objects are  naive  by default local time   local time replace tzinfo local zone    Convert time to UTC utc time   local time astimezone utc zone    Generate UTC time string utc string   utc time strftime   Y- m- d  H  M  S      Code was derived from this answer to Convert UTC datetime string to local datetime

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Thanks  rofly  the full conversion from string to string is as follows   time strftime   Y- m- d  H  M  S                  time gmtime time mktime time strptime  2008-09-17 14 04 00                                                          Y- m- d  H  M  S        My summary of the time calendar functions   time strptime string --  tuple  no timezone applied  so matches string   time mktime local time tuple --  seconds since epoch  always local time   time gmtime seconds since epoch --  tuple in UTC  and   calendar timegm tuple in UTC --  seconds since epoch  time localtime seconds since epoch --  tuple in local timezone

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In python 3 9 0  after you ve parsed your local time local time into datetime datetime object  just use local time astimezone datetime timezone utc

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Simple  I did it like this    gt  gt  gt  utc delta   datetime utcnow  -datetime now    gt  gt  gt  utc time   datetime 2008  9  17  14  2  0    utc delta  gt  gt  gt  print utc time  2008-09-17 19 01 59 999996   Fancy Implementation  If you want to get fancy  you can turn this into a functor   class to utc        utc delta   datetime utcnow   - datetime now        def   call   cls  t           return t   cls utc delta   Result     gt  gt  gt  utc converter   to utc    gt  gt  gt  print utc converter datetime 2008  9  17  14  2  0    2008-09-17 19 01 59 999996

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Thanks  rofly  the full conversion from string to string is as follows   time strftime   Y- m- d  H  M  S                  time gmtime time mktime time strptime  2008-09-17 14 04 00                                                          Y- m- d  H  M  S        My summary of the time calendar functions   time strptime string --  tuple  no timezone applied  so matches string   time mktime local time tuple --  seconds since epoch  always local time   time gmtime seconds since epoch --  tuple in UTC  and   calendar timegm tuple in UTC --  seconds since epoch  time localtime seconds since epoch --  tuple in local timezone

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This thread seems to be missing an option available since Python 3 6  datetime astimezone tz None  can be used to get an aware datetime object representing local time  docs   This can then easily be converted to UTC  from datetime import datetime  timezone s    quot 2008-09-17 14 02 00 quot     to datetime object  dt   datetime fromisoformat s    Python 3 7    I m on time zone Europe Berlin  CEST UTC 2 during summer 2008 dt   dt astimezone   print dt    2008-09-17 14 02 00 02 00       and to UTC  dtutc   dt astimezone timezone utc  print dtutc    2008-09-17 12 02 00 00 00  There is one caveat though  see astimezone None  gives aware datetime  unaware of DST

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In python3   pip install python-dateutil  from dateutil parser import tz  mydt astimezone tz gettz  UTC    replace tzinfo None

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NOTE -- As of 2020 you should not be using  utcnow   or  utcfromtimestamp xxx    As you ve presumably moved on to python3 you should be using timezone aware datetime objects   gt  gt  gt  from datetime import timezone  gt  gt  gt  dt now   datetime now tz timezone utc   gt  gt  gt  dt ts   datetime fromtimestamp 1571595618 0  tz timezone utc   for details see  see  https   blog ganssle io articles 2019 11 utcnow html original answer  from 2010   The datetime module s utcnow   function can be used to obtain the current UTC time   gt  gt  gt  import datetime  gt  gt  gt  utc datetime   datetime datetime utcnow    gt  gt  gt  utc datetime strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot    2010-02-01 06 59 19   As the link mentioned above by Tom  http   lucumr pocoo org 2011 7 15 eppur-si-muove   says   UTC is a timezone without daylight saving time and still a timezone without configuration changes in the past  Always measure and store time in UTC  If you need to record where the time was taken  store that separately  Do not store the local time   timezone information   NOTE - If any of your data is in a region that uses DST  use pytz and take a look at John Millikin s answer  If you want to obtain the UTC time from a given string and your lucky enough to be in a region in the world that either doesn t use DST  or you have data that is only offset from UTC without DST applied  -- gt  using local time as the basis for the offset value   gt  gt  gt    Obtain the UTC Offset for the current system   gt  gt  gt  UTC OFFSET TIMEDELTA   datetime datetime utcnow   - datetime datetime now    gt  gt  gt  local datetime   datetime datetime strptime  quot 2008-09-17 14 04 00 quot    quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot    gt  gt  gt  result utc datetime   local datetime   UTC OFFSET TIMEDELTA  gt  gt  gt  result utc datetime strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot    2008-09-17 04 04 00   -- gt  Or  from a known offset  using datetime timedelta     gt  gt  gt  UTC OFFSET   10  gt  gt  gt  result utc datetime   local datetime - datetime timedelta hours UTC OFFSET   gt  gt  gt  result utc datetime strftime  quot  Y- m- d  H  M  S quot    2008-09-17 04 04 00   UPDATE  Since python 3 2 datetime timezone is available   You can generate a timezone aware datetime object with the command below  import datetime  timezone aware dt   datetime datetime now datetime timezone utc   If your ready to take on timezone conversions go read this  https   medium com  eleroy 10-things-you-need-to-know-about-date-and-time-in-python-with-datetime-pytz-dateutil-timedelta-309bfbafb3f7

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I m having good luck with dateutil  which is widely recommended on SO for other related questions    from datetime import   from dateutil import   from dateutil tz import      METHOD 1  Hardcode zones  utc zone   tz gettz  UTC   local zone   tz gettz  America Chicago     METHOD 2  Auto-detect zones  utc zone   tz tzutc   local zone   tz tzlocal      Convert time string to datetime local time   datetime strptime  2008-09-17 14 02 00     Y- m- d  H  M  S      Tell the datetime object that it s in local time zone since    datetime objects are  naive  by default local time   local time replace tzinfo local zone    Convert time to UTC utc time   local time astimezone utc zone    Generate UTC time string utc string   utc time strftime   Y- m- d  H  M  S      Code was derived from this answer to Convert UTC datetime string to local datetime

[python] How to convert local time string to UTC?

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