Module 'datetime' has no attribute 'fromtimestamp' in Python

Module 'datetime' has no attribute 'fromtimestamp' in Python #

The error "AttributeError module 'datetime' has no attribute 'fromtimestamp'" occurs when we call the fromtimestamp method on the datetime module. To solve the error, use the following import import datetime and call the method as datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(...).

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

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import time

import datetime

# ⛔️ AttributeError: module 'datetime' has no attribute 'fromtimestamp'
today = datetime.fromtimestamp(time.time())

print(today)

The issue in the code sample is that we are trying to call the fromtimestamp method directly on the datetime module.

To solve the error, call the fromtimestamp method on the datetime class instead.

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import time

import datetime

today = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(time.time())

# 👇️ 2022-05-14 13:16:59.426594
print(today)

Alternatively, you can change your import statement to import the datetime class from the datetime module to not have to type datetime.datetime which looks quite confusing.

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import time

from datetime import datetime

today = datetime.fromtimestamp(time.time())

# 👇️ 2022-05-14 13:16:59.426594
print(today)

We imported the datetime class from the datetime module and called the fromtimestamp method on the class.

It is quite confusing that there is a class named datetime in the datetime module.

You can make your code a bit easier to read by using an alias in your import statement.

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import time

from datetime import datetime as dt

today = dt.fromtimestamp(time.time())

# 👇️ 2022-05-14 13:16:59.426594
print(today)

We aliased the datetime class to dt, so you would call the fromtimestamp method as dt.fromtimestamp() instead of datetime.fromtimestamp().

You can also pass a tz keyword argument to the method, to convert the timestamp to the specific time zone.

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import time

from datetime import datetime as dt, timezone

today = dt.fromtimestamp(time.time(), tz=timezone.utc)

# 👇️ 2022-05-14 10:21:52.540533+00:00
print(today)

The best way to start debugging the "AttributeError module 'datetime' has no attribute 'fromtimestamp'" is to call the dir() function passing it the imported module.

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import datetime

"""
[
  'MAXYEAR', 'MINYEAR', '__all__', '__builtins__', '__cached__',
 '__doc__', '__file__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__',
 '__spec__', 'date', 'datetime', 'datetime_CAPI', 'sys', 'time',
 'timedelta', 'timezone', 'tzinfo'
]
"""
print(dir(datetime))

If you pass a module object to the dir() function, it returns a list of names of the module's attributes.

We can see that the datetime module has no attribute named fromtimestamp, so it must be an attribute in one of the module's classes.

We can also see that the datetime module has an attribute datetime, which is what we used to successfully call the fromtimestamp() method.

If you import the datetime class from the datetime module and pass it to the dir() function, you will see the fromtimestamp method in the list of attributes.

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from datetime import datetime

# 👇️ [... 'fromtimestamp', ...]
print(dir(datetime))

If you got the error "AttributeError: partially initialized module 'datetime' has no attribute 'fromtimestamp' (most likely due to a circular import)", there is a file called datetime.py in your local codebase.

To solve the error, make sure to not use names of built-in or remote modules, e.g. datetime.py, for your local files.

Conclusion #

The error "AttributeError module 'datetime' has no attribute 'fromtimestamp'" occurs when we call the fromtimestamp method on the datetime module. To solve the error, use the following import import datetime and call the method as datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(...).