read_csv with parse_date not recognising dates?

Question

I have a CSV file that looks like this:

date,important
July 2015,True
August 2015,False

But when I try to read it into pandas using read_csv with the parse_dates flag, it isn't parsing the date column as dates:

df = pd.read_csv('test.csv', parse_dates=True)
df
          date important
0    July 2015      True
1  August 2015     False

I guess this is because they aren't date objects in a recognised format, but is there any way around this?

I can use df.date = pd.to_datetime(df.date) just fine, so I find it odd that I can't do that on import.

user2285236 · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-05 11:43:47Z

1

By default, it parses the index as date and there is no index specified here. Either pass index_col=0 or specify the name of the column:

df = pd.read_csv('test.csv', parse_dates=['date'])

df
Out[30]: 
        date important
0 2015-07-01      True
1 2015-08-01     False

Or

df = pd.read_csv('test.txt', parse_dates=True, index_col=0)

df
Out[33]: 
           important
date                
2015-07-01      True
2015-08-01     False

answered Aug 5, 2016 at 11:43

user2285236

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1 Comment

Richard Over a year ago

Wow! I had no idea. Thanks.

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