strptime for different languages

[Ulrich Goebel]

Hi,

I need to interpret a date string to get a datetime object. That should 
be done with strptime from the module datetime.

But I don't know enough about the locale settings from where the date 
sting comes. Actually the date_string cames from different contact forms 
inside websites made by different content management systems. So it could be
   13. Januar 1965
   13. January 1965
   13.01.1965
   1965-01-13
or even some known other formats.

What I tried is a cascade of try's:

try:
   d = strptime(date_string, format_string_1)
except:
   try:
     d = strptime(date_string, format_string_2)
   except:
     try:
       d = strptime(date_string, format_string_3)
     except:
       ...

That works, as long the month comes as number.

But how to cover name of months in different language?

(Shure, it would not be possible to cover all possibilities and 
languages. But I know the possible languages.)

Best regards
Ulrich

-- 
Ulrich Goebel
Am Büchel 57, 53173 Bonn