[FIXED] time data 'June 13, 1980 (United States)' does not match format '%m/%d/%Y' (match)

Issue

How can i passs a datetime format on a column with str such as June 13, 1980 (United States)

i tried df['format_released'] = pd.to_datetime(df['released'], format='%m/%d/%Y')

got this error

time data 'June 13, 1980 (United States)' does not match format '%m/%d/%Y' (match)

Solution

You need to preprocess the column to discard the non relevant data.

Using str.replace:

df['format_released'] = pd.to_datetime(df['released'].str.replace(r'\s*(.*$', '', regex=True), format='%B %d, %Y')

Or using str.extract:

df['format_released'] = pd.to_datetime(df['released'].str.extract(r'(\w+ \d+, \d+)', expand=False), format='%B %d, %Y')

Answered By - mozway