[FIXED] Python how to convert datetime.date to the YYYY-MM-DD?

Issue

I have a two million timestamp data. I am trying to find first and last date that to in the YYYY-MM-DD format so I can use them in saving file name. But, I found out that np.unique(df.index) is fast (10s) and produces dates in the datetime.date(2022, 6, 7) format but df.index.strftime('%Y-%m-%d').unique() gives the output I want but it takes more than 5 min, which is bad. So, I decided to use the former approach.

So, How do I convert something like datetime.date(2022, 6, 7) to'2022-06-07'?

Solution

Just put that into the str(...) function:

import datetime
my_date = datetime.date(2022, 6, 7)
print(str(my_date))  # prints 2022-06-07

Technically, you can just print it and not make it a string first. But putting it in str means that instead of printing it, you could save that string to a variable.

If you need more advanced formatting options, then you can do what @FObersteiner suggested. But the format you want happens to be the default, so this will do if you just want that one format

Answered By - cocomac