Python parse only iso8601 datetime format?

Question

I'm writing an API and I would like to accept ISO 8601 format for date and time. I want to accept only that format. I'm using dateutil at the moment, but its parse function accepts all manner of formats unrelated to ISO8601. I have a simple regex checking the format now, but the actual standard allows a lot more than what my regex does.

Is there a simple function/module which provides a way to parse only 8601 formatted dates/times?

Answer 1

You can use datetime.datetime.strptime , which will give an error if it cannot parse against the format you specify:

from datetime import datetime

def parse_8601(s):
    """Parses date string if in an ISO 8601 format, else returns None."""
    for f in ["%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S", ...]: # acceptable formats
        try:
            return datetime.strptime(s, f)
        except ValueError:
            pass