dateparser – python parser for human readable dates

dateparser provides modules to easily parse localized dates in almost any string formats commonly found on web pages.

Documentation

Documentation is built automatically and can be found on Read the Docs.

Features

• Generic parsing of dates in English, Spanish, Dutch, Russian and several other languages and formats.
• Generic parsing of relative dates like: '1 min ago', '2 weeks ago', '3 months, 1 week and 1 day ago'.
• Generic parsing of dates with time zones abbreviations or UTC offsets like: 'August 14, 2015 EST', 'July 4, 2013 PST', '21 July 2013 10:15 pm +0500'.
• Support for non-Gregorian calendar systems. See Supported Calendars.
• Extensive test coverage.

Usage

The most straightforward way is to use the dateparser.parse function, that wraps around most of the functionality in the module.

dateparser.parse(*args, **kwargs)

Parse date and time from given date string.

Parameters:

• date_string (str|unicode) – A string representing date and/or time in a recognizably valid format.
• date_formats (list) – A list of format strings using directives as given here. The parser applies formats one by one, taking into account the detected languages.
• languages (list) – A list of two letters language codes.e.g. [‘en’, ‘es’]. If languages are given, it will not attempt to detect the language.
• settings (dict) – Configure customized behavior using settings defined in dateparser.conf.Settings.

Returns:

Returns datetime representing parsed date if successful, else returns None

Return type:

datetime.

Raises:

ValueError - Unknown Language

Popular Formats

>>> import dateparser
>>> dateparser.parse('12/12/12')
datetime.datetime(2012, 12, 12, 0, 0)
>>> dateparser.parse(u'Fri, 12 Dec 2014 10:55:50')
datetime.datetime(2014, 12, 12, 10, 55, 50)
>>> dateparser.parse(u'Martes 21 de Octubre de 2014')  # Spanish (Tuesday 21 October 2014)
datetime.datetime(2014, 10, 21, 0, 0)
>>> dateparser.parse(u'Le 11 Décembre 2014 à 09:00')  # French (11 December 2014 at 09:00)
datetime.datetime(2014, 12, 11, 9, 0)
>>> dateparser.parse(u'13 января 2015 г. в 13:34')  # Russian (13 January 2015 at 13:34)
datetime.datetime(2015, 1, 13, 13, 34)
>>> dateparser.parse(u'1 เดือนตุลาคม 2005, 1:00 AM')  # Thai (1 October 2005, 1:00 AM)
datetime.datetime(2005, 10, 1, 1, 0)

This will try to parse a date from the given string, attempting to detect the language each time.

You can specify the language(s), if known, using languages argument. In this case, given languages are used and language detection is skipped:

>>> dateparser.parse('2015, Ago 15, 1:08 pm', languages=['pt', 'es'])
datetime.datetime(2015, 8, 15, 13, 8)

If you know the possible formats of the dates, you can use the date_formats argument:

>>> dateparser.parse(u'22 Décembre 2010', date_formats=['%d %B %Y'])
datetime.datetime(2010, 12, 22, 0, 0)

Relative Dates

>>> parse('1 hour ago')
datetime.datetime(2015, 5, 31, 23, 0)
>>> parse(u'Il ya 2 heures')  # French (2 hours ago)
datetime.datetime(2015, 5, 31, 22, 0)
>>> parse(u'1 anno 2 mesi')  # Italian (1 year 2 months)
datetime.datetime(2014, 4, 1, 0, 0)
>>> parse(u'yaklaşık 23 saat önce')  # Turkish (23 hours ago)
datetime.datetime(2015, 5, 31, 1, 0)
>>> parse(u'Hace una semana')  # Spanish (a week ago)
datetime.datetime(2015, 5, 25, 0, 0)
>>> parse(u'2小时前')  # Chinese (2 hours ago)
datetime.datetime(2015, 5, 31, 22, 0)

Note

Testing above code might return different values for you depending on your environment’s current date and time.

Dependencies

dateparser relies on following libraries in some ways:

• dateutil‘s module parser to parse the translated dates.
• PyYAML for reading language and configuration files.
• jdatetime to convert Jalali dates to Gregorian.
• umalqurra to convert Hijri dates to Gregorian.

Supported languages

• Arabic
• Belarusian
• Chinese
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Tagalog/Filipino
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Persian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Spanish
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese

Supported Calendars

• Gregorian calendar.

• Persian Jalali calendar. For more information, refer to Persian Jalali Calendar.

• Hijri/Islamic Calendar. For more information, refer to Hijri Calendar.

  >>> from dateparser.calendars.jalali import JalaliParser
  >>> JalaliParser(u'جمعه سی ام اسفند ۱۳۸۷').get_date()
  datetime.datetime(2009, 3, 20, 0, 0)
  

  >>> from dateparser.calendars.hijri import HijriCalendar
  >>> HijriCalendar(u'17-01-1437 هـ 08:30 مساءً').get_date()
  {'date_obj': datetime.datetime(2015, 10, 30, 20, 30), 'period': 'day'}
  

Note

HijriCalendar has some limitations with Python 3.

Note

For Finnish language, please specify settings={‘SKIP_TOKENS’: []} to correctly parse freshness dates.

Using DateDataParser

dateparser.parse() uses a default parser which tries to detect language every time it is called and is not the most efficient way while parsing dates from the same source.

DateDataParser provides an alternate and efficient way to control language detection behavior.

The instance of DateDataParser reduces the number of applicable languages, until only one or no language is left. It assumes the previously detected language for all the subsequent dates supplied and does not try to execute the language detection again after a language is discarded.

This class wraps around the core dateparser functionality, and by default assumes that all of the dates fed to it are in the same language.

class dateparser.date.DateDataParser(*args, **kwargs)

Class which handles language detection, translation and subsequent generic parsing of string representing date and/or time.

Parameters:

• languages (list) – A list of two letters language codes, e.g. [‘en’, ‘es’]. If languages are given, it will not attempt to detect the language.
• allow_redetect_language (bool) – Enables/disables language re-detection.
• settings (dict) – Configure customized behavior using settings defined in dateparser.conf.Settings.

Returns:

A parser instance

Raises:

ValueError - Unknown Language, TypeError - Languages argument must be a list

get_date_data(date_string, date_formats=None)

Parse string representing date and/or time in recognizable localized formats. Supports parsing multiple languages and timezones.

Parameters:

• date_string (str|unicode) – A string representing date and/or time in a recognizably valid format.
• date_formats (list) –

  A list of format strings using directives as given here. The parser applies formats one by one, taking into account the detected languages.

Returns:

a dict mapping keys to datetime.datetime object and period. For example: {‘date_obj’: datetime.datetime(2015, 6, 1, 0, 0), ‘period’: u’day’}

Raises:

ValueError - Unknown Language

Note

Period values can be a ‘day’ (default), ‘week’, ‘month’, ‘year’.

Period represents the granularity of date parsed from the given string.

In the example below, since no day information is present, the day is assumed to be current day 16 from current date (which is June 16, 2015, at the moment of writing this). Hence, the level of precision is month:

>>> DateDataParser().get_date_data(u'March 2015')
{'date_obj': datetime.datetime(2015, 3, 16, 0, 0), 'period': u'month'}

Similarly, for date strings with no day and month information present, level of precision is year and day 16 and month 6 are from current_date.

>>> DateDataParser().get_date_data(u'2014')
{'date_obj': datetime.datetime(2014, 6, 16, 0, 0), 'period': u'year'}

Dates with time zone indications or UTC offsets are returned in UTC time unless specified using Settings.

>>> DateDataParser().get_date_data(u'23 March 2000, 1:21 PM CET')
{'date_obj': datetime.datetime(2000, 3, 23, 14, 21), 'period': 'day'}

Warning

It fails to parse English dates in the example below, because Spanish was detected and stored with the ddp instance:

>>> ddp.get_date_data('11 August 2012')
{'date_obj': None, 'period': 'day'}

dateparser.date.DateDataParser can also be initialized with known languages:

>>> ddp = DateDataParser(languages=['de', 'nl'])
>>> ddp.get_date_data(u'vr jan 24, 2014 12:49')
{'date_obj': datetime.datetime(2014, 1, 24, 12, 49), 'period': u'day'}
>>> ddp.get_date_data(u'18.10.14 um 22:56 Uhr')
{'date_obj': datetime.datetime(2014, 10, 18, 22, 56), 'period': u'day'}

Settings

dateparser‘s parsing behavior can be configured like below:

TIMEZONE defaults to UTC. All dates, complete or relative, are assumed to be in UTC. When specified, resultant datetime converts according to the supplied timezone:

>>> parse('January 12, 2012 10:00 PM')
datetime.datetime(2012, 1, 12, 22, 0)

>>> parse('January 12, 2012 10:00 PM', settings={'TIMEZONE': 'US/Eastern'})
datetime.datetime(2012, 1, 12, 17, 0)

PREFER_DAY_OF_MONTH defaults to current and can have first and last as values:

>>> from dateparser import parse
>>> parse(u'December 2015')  # default behavior
datetime.datetime(2015, 12, 16, 0, 0)
>>> parse(u'December 2015', settings={'PREFER_DAY_OF_MONTH': 'last'})
datetime.datetime(2015, 12, 31, 0, 0)
>>> parse(u'December 2015', settings={'PREFER_DAY_OF_MONTH': 'first'})
datetime.datetime(2015, 12, 1, 0, 0)

PREFER_DATES_FROM defaults to current_period and can have past and future as values. Assuming current date is June 16, 2015:

>>> from dateparser import parse
>>> parse(u'March')
datetime.datetime(2015, 3, 16, 0, 0)
>>> parse(u'March', settings={'PREFER_DATES_FROM': 'future'})
datetime.datetime(2016, 3, 16, 0, 0)

SKIP_TOKENS is a list of tokens to discard while detecting language. Defaults to ['t'] which skips T in iso format datetime string .e.g. 2015-05-02T10:20:19+0000.:

>>> from dateparser.date import DateDataParser
>>> DateDataParser(settings={'SKIP_TOKENS': ['de']}).get_date_data(u'27 Haziran 1981 de')  # Turkish (at 27 June 1981)
{'date_obj': datetime.datetime(1981, 6, 27, 0, 0), 'period': 'day'}

RETURN_AS_TIMEZONE_AWARE is a flag to turn on timezone aware dates if timezone is detected or specified.:

>>> parse('12 Feb 2015 10:56 PM EST', settings={'RETURN_AS_TIMEZONE_AWARE': True})
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 13, 3, 56, tzinfo=<StaticTzInfo 'UTC'>)

>>> parse('12 Feb 2015 10:56 PM EST', settings={'RETURN_AS_TIMEZONE_AWARE': True, 'TIMEZONE': 'EST'})
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 12, 22, 56, tzinfo=<StaticTzInfo 'EST'>)

If RETURN_AS_TIMEZONE_AWARE is set to True, and TIMEZONE is None, a timezone aware date is only returned if the input string explicitly specifies the time zone, otherwise an unaware date is returned:

>>> parse('12 Feb 2015 10:56 PM', settings={'RETURN_AS_TIMEZONE_AWARE': True, 'TIMEZONE': None})
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 12, 22, 56)

>>> parse('12 Feb 2015 10:56 PM EST', settings={'RETURN_AS_TIMEZONE_AWARE': True, 'TIMEZONE': None})
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 12, 22, 56, tzinfo=<StaticTzInfo 'EST'>)

Documentation

Contents:

• Installation
  • Deploying dateparser in a Scrapy Cloud project
• Contributing
  • Types of Contributions
  • Get Started!
  • Pull Request Guidelines
  • Guidelines for Adding New Languages
• Credits
  • Committers
• History
  • 0.3.5 (2016-04-27)
  • 0.3.4 (2016-03-03)
  • 0.3.3 (2016-02-29)
  • 0.3.2 (2016-01-25)
  • 0.3.1 (2015-10-28)
  • 0.3.0 (2015-07-29)
  • 0.2.1 (2015-07-13)
  • 0.2.0 (2015-06-17)
  • 0.1.0 (2014-11-24)

Indices and tables

• Index
• Module Index
• Search Page