DateTime Handling

DateTime in Python

Datetime handling enables time-based analysis.

Parsing

pd.to_datetime converts strings to datetime. format parameter specifies format: '%Y-%m-%d'.

datetime64[ns] is pandas datetime type. .dt accessor provides datetime methods.

Components

Extract components: .dt.year, .dt.month, .dt.day, .dt.dayofweek, .dt.hour.

Resample aggregates by time period: df.resample('D').mean() for daily, 'M' for monthly.

Time Zones

Timezone localization: dt.tz_localize('UTC'). Conversion: dt.tz_convert('US/Eastern').

Handling time zones prevents errors in global data.

Key Takeaways

1. Pandas provides powerful datetime handling
2. .dt accessor extracts datetime components
3. Resample enables time-based aggregation