Simplify Python Date Strings: From Complex Code to Clean Formatting

Introduction

Hello, I’m PiPi. In a Python group a member asked how to turn the string 2022-03-25 08:00:00.000000000 into the format "2022年3月25日8时".

Initial Attempt

The original solution used multiple split calls and string concatenation, which was hard to read:

x = '2022-03-25 08:00:00.000000000'
result = x.split()[0].split('-')[0] + '年' + str(int(x.split()[0].split('-')[1])) + '月' + x.split()[0].split('-')[2] + '日' + str(int(x.split()[1].split(':')[0])) + '时'

While it works, it is overly complex.

Excel Shortcut (Reference)

One participant showed an Excel formula that achieves the same result: =TEXT(--LEFT(A1,19),"e年m月d日h时") This is not usable in code but demonstrates the desired output.

Python Solution

A concise Python approach uses datetime.strptime to parse the string and strftime to format it:

from datetime import datetime

date_str = '2022-03-25 08:00:00.000000000'
# Remove the trailing nanoseconds
date_str = date_str.split('.')[0]

dt = datetime.strptime(date_str, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
formatted = dt.strftime('%Y年%m月%d日%H时')
print(formatted)  # 2022年03月25日08时

The key is trimming the extra nanosecond part before parsing; otherwise strptime raises an error.

Additional Tips

Other contributors suggested variations, but the core idea remains: preprocess the string to remove unnecessary precision, then use datetime for reliable conversion.

Conclusion

The article demonstrates several ways to handle date‑time strings in Python, emphasizing a clean, maintainable solution with the standard library, which can replace the original cumbersome manual splitting method.