Python: Convert a string date to the timestamp

Last update on April 22 2025 12:47:26 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

31. String Date to Timestamp

Write a Python program to convert a string date to a timestamp.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Import the time module
import time
# Import the datetime module
import datetime
# Assign a date string to the variable 's'
s = "01/10/2016"
# Print an empty line
print()
# Convert the date string to a timestamp using datetime module and print it
print(time.mktime(datetime.datetime.strptime(s, "%d/%m/%Y").timetuple()))
# Print an empty line
print()

Output:

1494225605.0

Explanation:

In the exercise above,

The code imports two modules: "time" and "datetime".
It assigns a date string "01/10/2016" to the variable 's'. This string represents the date in the format of "day/month/year".
Next, it converts the date string 's' into a timestamp using the "strptime()" method from the "datetime" module to parse the string into a datetime object, and then "mktime()" function from the "time" module to convert the datetime object into a Unix timestamp (the number of seconds since the Unix epoch - January 1, 1970).
Finally, it prints the calculated timestamp.

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Python program to parse a date string in "DD/MM/YYYY" format and then convert it to a Unix timestamp.
Write a Python script that accepts a string date with time and returns its Unix timestamp after proper conversion.
Write a Python function to convert a list of date strings into timestamps and then output the earliest and latest timestamps.
Write a Python program to read a date string from input, convert it to a datetime object, and then print the corresponding timestamp.

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