convert string to datetime object
Question: I'd like to convert this string into a datetime object:

    
    
    Wed Oct 20 16:35:44 +0000 2010
    

Is there a simple way to do this? Or do I have to write a RE to parse the
elements, convert Oct to 10 and so forth?

EDIT: strptime is great. However, with

    
    
    datetime.strptime(date_str, "%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %z %Y")
    

I get

    
    
    ValueError: 'z' is a bad directive in format '%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %z %Y'
    

even though %z seems to be correct.

EDIT2: The %z tag appears to not be supported. See
<http://bugs.python.org/issue6641>. I got around it by using a timedelta
object to modify the time appropriately.


Answer: No RE needed. Try this:

    
    
    from dateutil import parser
    
    yourDate = parser.parse(yourString)  
    

for "Wed Oct 20 16:35:44 +0000 2010" returns `datetime.datetime(2010, 10, 20,
16, 35, 44, tzinfo=tzutc())`

