diff --git a/Doc/library/datetime.rst b/Doc/library/datetime.rst index 4602132f37f733..14b9ea70ff5f10 100644 --- a/Doc/library/datetime.rst +++ b/Doc/library/datetime.rst @@ -2525,7 +2525,24 @@ Broadly speaking, ``d.strftime(fmt)`` acts like the :mod:`time` module's For the :meth:`.datetime.strptime` class method, the default value is ``1900-01-01T00:00:00.000``: any components not specified in the format string -will be pulled from the default value. [#]_ +will be pulled from the default value. + +.. note:: + When used to parse partial dates lacking a year, :meth:`~.datetime.strptime` + will raise when encountering February 29 because its default year of 1900 is + *not* a leap year. Always add a default leap year to partial date strings + before parsing:: + + .. doctest:: + + >>> from datetime import datetime + >>> value = "2/29" + >>> datetime.strptime(value, "%m/%d") + Traceback (most recent call last): + ... + ValueError: day is out of range for month + >>> datetime.strptime(f"1904 {value}", "%Y %m/%d") + datetime.datetime(1904, 2, 29, 0, 0) Using ``datetime.strptime(date_string, format)`` is equivalent to:: @@ -2651,6 +2668,11 @@ Notes: for formats ``%d``, ``%m``, ``%H``, ``%I``, ``%M``, ``%S``, ``%j``, ``%U``, ``%W``, and ``%V``. Format ``%y`` does require a leading zero. +(10) + Parsing dates without a year using :meth:`~.datetime.strptime` will fail on + representations of February 29 as that date does not exist in the default + year of 1900. + .. rubric:: Footnotes .. [#] If, that is, we ignore the effects of Relativity @@ -2664,5 +2686,3 @@ Notes: .. [#] See R. H. van Gent's `guide to the mathematics of the ISO 8601 calendar `_ for a good explanation. - -.. [#] Passing ``datetime.strptime('Feb 29', '%b %d')`` will fail since ``1900`` is not a leap year.