How to make an unaware datetime timezone aware in python

Question

What I need to do

I have a timezone-unaware datetime object, to which I need to add a time zone in order to be able to compare it with other timezon

Answer 1

I use this statement in Django to convert an unaware time to an aware:

from django.utils import timezone

dt_aware = timezone.make_aware(dt_unaware, timezone.get_current_timezone())

Answer 2

Python 3.9 adds the zoneinfo module so now only the standard library is needed!

from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
from datetime import datetime
unaware = datetime(2020, 10, 31, 12)

Attach a timezone:

>>> unaware.replace(tzinfo=ZoneInfo('Asia/Tokyo'))
datetime.datetime(2020, 10, 31, 12, 0, tzinfo=zoneinfo.ZoneInfo(key='Asia/Tokyo'))
>>> str(_)
'2020-10-31 12:00:00+09:00'

Attach the system's local timezone:

>>> unaware.replace(tzinfo=ZoneInfo('localtime'))
datetime.datetime(2020, 10, 31, 12, 0, tzinfo=zoneinfo.ZoneInfo(key='localtime'))
>>> str(_)
'2020-10-31 12:00:00+01:00'

Subsequently it is properly converted to other timezones:

>>> unaware.replace(tzinfo=ZoneInfo('localtime')).astimezone(ZoneInfo('Asia/Tokyo'))
datetime.datetime(2020, 10, 31, 20, 0, tzinfo=backports.zoneinfo.ZoneInfo(key='Asia/Tokyo'))
>>> str(_)
'2020-10-31 20:00:00+09:00'

Wikipedia list of available time zones

---

Windows has no system time zone database, so here an extra package is needed:

pip install tzdata  

---

There is a backport to allow use of zoneinfo in Python 3.6 to 3.8:

pip install backports.zoneinfo

Then:

from backports.zoneinfo import ZoneInfo

Answer 3

for those that just want to make a timezone aware datetime

import datetime
import pytz

datetime.datetime(2019, 12, 7, tzinfo=pytz.UTC)

Answer 4

All of these examples use an external module, but you can achieve the same result using just the datetime module, as also presented in this SO answer:

from datetime import datetime
from datetime import timezone

dt = datetime.now()
dt.replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc)

print(dt.replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc).isoformat())
'2017-01-12T22:11:31+00:00'

Fewer dependencies and no pytz issues.

NOTE: If you wish to use this with python3 and python2, you can use this as well for the timezone import (hardcoded for UTC):

try:
    from datetime import timezone
    utc = timezone.utc
except ImportError:
    #Hi there python2 user
    class UTC(tzinfo):
        def utcoffset(self, dt):
            return timedelta(0)
        def tzname(self, dt):
            return "UTC"
        def dst(self, dt):
            return timedelta(0)
    utc = UTC()

Answer 5

I wrote this at Nov 22 2011 , is Pyhton 2 only , never checked if it work on Python 3

I had use from dt_aware to dt_unaware

dt_unaware = dt_aware.replace(tzinfo=None)

and dt_unware to dt_aware

from pytz import timezone
localtz = timezone('Europe/Lisbon')
dt_aware = localtz.localize(dt_unware)

but answer before is also a good solution.

Answer 6

I agree with the previous answers, and is fine if you are ok to start in UTC. But I think it is also a common scenario for people to work with a tz aware value that has a datetime that has a non UTC local timezone.

If you were to just go by name, one would probably infer replace() will be applicable and produce the right datetime aware object. This is not the case.

the replace( tzinfo=... ) seems to be random in its behaviour. It is therefore useless. Do not use this!

localize is the correct function to use. Example:

localdatetime_aware = tz.localize(datetime_nonaware)

Or a more complete example:

import pytz
from datetime import datetime
pytz.timezone('Australia/Melbourne').localize(datetime.now())

gives me a timezone aware datetime value of the current local time:

datetime.datetime(2017, 11, 3, 7, 44, 51, 908574, tzinfo=<DstTzInfo 'Australia/Melbourne' AEDT+11:00:00 DST>)