How to format date string via multiple formats in python

Try each format and see if it works:

from datetime import datetimedef try_parsing_date(text):    for fmt in ('%Y-%m-%d', '%d.%m.%Y', '%d/%m/%Y'):        try:            return datetime.strptime(text, fmt)        except ValueError:            pass    raise ValueError('no valid date format found')

>>> import dateutil.parser>>> dateutil.parser.parse(date_string)

This should take care of most of the standard date formats in Python 2.7+. If you really have super custom date formats, you can always fall back to the one mentioned by Jon Clements.

This actually a problem i was facing and this how i approached it, my main purpose was to the date seperators

class InputRequest:     "This class contain all inputs function that will be required in this program. "      def __init__(self, stockTickerName = 'YHOO', stockSite='yahoo', startDate = None,              endDate = datetime.date.today()):      def requestInput(self, requestType =''):          "Fro requesting input from user"          self.__requestInput = input(requestType)          return self.__requestInputdef dateFormat(self, dateType=''):    '''        this function handles user date input        this repeats until the correct format is supplied        dataType: this is the type of date, eg: DOF, Date of Arriveal, etc     '''    while True:        try:            dateString = InputRequest.requestInput(self,dateType)            dtFormat = ('%Y/%m/%d','%Y-%m-%d','%Y.%m.%d','%Y,%m,%d','%Y\%m\%d') #you can add extra formats needed            for i in dtFormat:                try:                    return datetime.datetime.strptime(dateString, i).strftime(i)                except ValueError:                    pass        except ValueError:            pass        print('\nNo valid date format found. Try again:')        print("Date must be seperated by either [/ - , . \] (eg: 2012/12/31 --> ): ")