How Do I Convert UTC Datetime Strings to Local Datetimes in Python?

Converting UTC Datetime Strings to Local Datetimes

Converting time between UTC and local time zones can be a challenging task. This article addresses the specific problem of converting a UTC datetime string to a datetime object in the user's correct time zone.

UTC Time Storage and Conversion

The provided code uses datetime.utcfromtimestamp(timestamp) to convert a timestamp to UTC time. To store the data in BigTable, it is recommended to use a string representation of the UTC datetime.

Local Time Conversion

To convert the UTC datetime string to a local time, the Python-dateutil library offers a convenient solution. It provides implementations of time zone information based on the Olson database, allowing you to refer to time zones by canonical names.

Implementation

Here's an example of how to convert a UTC datetime string to a local datetime:

from datetime import datetime
from dateutil import tz

# Auto-detect the current timezone
local_zone = tz.tzlocal()

# Parse the UTC datetime string
utc_str = "2011-01-21 02:37:21"
utc = datetime.strptime(utc_str, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

# Convert to local time
local = utc.astimezone(local_zone)

Time Zone Storage

For storing time zone information, the recommendation is to use the pytz library, which provides a comprehensive database of time zones and allows for easy manipulation of time zone information.

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