[Python-ideas] strptime without second argument as an inverse to __str__

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, Aug 06, 2014 at 06:48:44AM -0700, Andrew Barnert wrote:

> The purpose of strftime and strptime is to be inverses of each 
> other--to generate and parse datetime strings in a specified way. If 
> one of those ways is "the default Python string representation" for 
> one function, it should be true for the other. 

As of Python 3.3, neither strftime nor strptime take a default format. 
It's only __str__ which has an implicit default format.


> (Doesn't gnu strf/ptime 
> have an extension that gives you % codes for "default" date and time 
> representations, which don't guarantee anything other than that they 
> be reasonable for the locale and reversible?)

I worry about something like that. Unless the default is guaranteed to 
be a particular format, what counts as "reasonable" when the string is 
written out and when read back in may not be the same.


-- 
Steven