Convert Pandas DatetimeIndex to String

You can convert or cast pandas DatetimeIndex to String by using pd.to_datetime() and DatetimeIndex.strftime() functions. Pandas DatetimeIndex class is an Immutable ndarray which is used to store datetime64 data (internally stores as int64). When assigning a date field to an index it automatically converts into DatetimeIndex.

In this article, I will explain how to create an Index with DatatimeIndex and convert it to string format with multiple examples.

1. Quick Examples of DataTime Index to String

If you are in hurry, below are some quick examples of converting DatetimeIndex to String.

# Below are some quick examples.

# Example 1: Convert DatetimeIndex to String.
print(df.index.strftime('%m/%d/%Y, %r'))

# Example 2: Using Index.format
print(pd.Series(df.index.format()))

# Example 3: Assign DatetimeIndex String Back to Index.
df.index = df.index.strftime('%m/%d/%Y, %r')
print(df)

Now, Let’s create a pandas DataFrame with a few rows and columns, execute these examples and validate results. Here, pandas.date_range() function is used to create dates between two dates with frequency daily.

# Create Pandas DataFrame.
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'Courses':["Spark","PySpark","Spark"],
    'Fee' :[22000,25000,23000],
    'Duration':['30days','50days','35days']
          })
df.index = pd.date_range('20210101','20210103',freq='D')
print(df)
print(type(df.index))

Yields below output.

# Output:
            Courses    Fee Duration
2021-01-01    Spark  22000   30days
2021-01-02  PySpark  25000   50days
2021-01-03    Spark  23000   35days
<class 'pandas.core.indexes.datetimes.DatetimeIndex'>

2. Convert DatetimeIndex to String

As you see above, the type of df.index is DatetimeIndex, which you can use DatetimeIndex.strftime() to convert to a specific string format. The below example converts it into String with date format '%m/%d/%Y, %r'.

# Convert DatetimeIndex to String.
print(df.index.strftime('%m/%d/%Y, %r'))

Yields below output.

# Output:
Index(['01/01/2021, 12:00:00 AM', '01/02/2021, 12:00:00 AM',
       '01/03/2021, 12:00:00 AM'],
      dtype='object')

Similarly, you can also use df.index.format() to convert DatetimeIndex.

# Using Index.format
print(pd.Series(df.index.format()))

Yields below output.

# Output:
0    2021-01-01
1    2021-01-02
2    2021-01-03
dtype: object

3. Assign DatetimeIndex String Back to Index

You can assign this formatted DatetimeIndex String to Index but the index type would be Index with string values. Note that this is not a good practice as you would be losing the DatetimeIndex feature.

# Assign DatetimeIndex String Back to Index.
df.index = df.index.strftime('%m/%d/%Y, %r')
print(df)
print(type(df.index))

Yields output same as above.

# Output:
                         Courses    Fee Duration
01/01/2021, 12:00:00 AM    Spark  22000   30days
01/02/2021, 12:00:00 AM  PySpark  25000   50days
01/03/2021, 12:00:00 AM    Spark  23000   35days
<class 'pandas.core.indexes.base.Index'>

4. Complete Examples of DataTimeIndex to String

# Create Pandas DataFrame.
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
technologies= {
    'Courses':["Spark","PySpark","Spark"],
    'Fee' :[22000,25000,23000],
    'Duration':['30days','50days','35days']
          }
df = pd.DataFrame(technologies)
df.index = pd.date_range('20210101','20210103',freq='D')
print(df)
print(type(df.index))

# Example 1
print(pd.Series(df.index.format()))

# Example 2
print(df.index.strftime('%m/%d/%Y, %r'))

# Example 3
df.index = df.index.strftime('%m/%d/%Y, %r')
print(df)
print(type(df.index))

# Example 4
# Create column with date
df['date'] = pd.date_range('20210101','20210103',freq='D')

# Column date would be of type datetime64[ns]
print(df)
print(df.date.dtypes)

You can also find this example in the GitHub repository.

Conclusion

In this article, I have explained how to convert DatetimeIndex to String format of pandas DataFrame index by using pd.to_datetime() and DatetimeIndex.strftime() functions with several examples.

Related Articles

• How to Drop Rows From Pandas DataFrame Examples
• How to Merge Series into Pandas DataFrame
• Change the Order of Pandas DataFrame Columns
• How to Combine Two Series into pandas DataFrame
• Get Count of Each Row of Pandas DataFrame
• Convert Pandas Index to List
• Pandas Index Explained with Examples
• Pandas DataFrame reindex() Function

References

• https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/getting_started/tutorials.html