Convert string into date format problems

Question

I have a string column within an attribute table that has a string in the format of:

yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss (i.e 20150417 13:32:05)

I've tried using the convert time field tool within the python IDE in ArcMap and it's not giving me the full date/time.

import arcpy as arc 

arc.ConvertTimeField_management(in_table="TEST_TIME",
                                input_time_field="Date__Time",
                                input_time_format="yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss;1033;;",
                                output_time_field="Date_Conv",
                                output_time_type="DATE",
                                output_time_format="yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss")

I've used both "not used" and the format I want in output_time_format

The resulting output field is always MM/dd/yyyy with no time stamp included.

Answer 1

Try this out:

arc.ConvertTimeField_management("TEST_TIME","Date__Time","yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss","Date_Conv","DATE")

There are two issues with your code:

1. Since your input local is not the U.S. (01033), the time gets messed up, so just leave that out
2. When you chose "DATE" for your output time type, you do not get to chose your "locale", since that is handled by your OS or environmental settings

Answer 2

I'm a couple of years late to the party, but...

You didn't state how your data is stored, but from your results, I'm guessing that you're using a shapefile because I've gotten similar results in the past using shapefiles. I learned the hard way that the shapefile date storage format can only contain dates. It does not allow date and time together.

As a solution, convert your shapefile to a FGDB feature class, as its date format can store date, time or dates and time together.