TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object is not subscriptable

TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object is not subscriptable #

The Python "TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object is not subscriptable" occurs when we use square brackets to access an index or a key in a datetime object. To solve the error, use dot notation to access an attribute or remove the square brackets accessor.

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

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from datetime import datetime

result = datetime.today()

print(type(result)) # 👉️ <class 'datetime.datetime'>

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object is not subscriptable
print(result[0])

You could also be trying to access a specific key.

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from datetime import datetime

result = datetime.today()

print(type(result))

# ⛔️ TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object is not subscriptable
print(result['some_key'])

Instead, you should access an attribute on the datetime object or remove the square brackets accessor.

The best way to start debugging is to call the dir() function passing it the imported module.

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from datetime import datetime

# 👇️ [...'astimezone', 'combine', 'ctime', 'date', 'day',
#  'dst', 'fold', 'fromisocalendar', 'fromisoformat',
#  'fromordinal', 'fromtimestamp', 'hour', 'isocalendar',... ]
print(dir(datetime))

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

You can use dot notation to access any of the attributes a datetime object supports.

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from datetime import datetime

d = datetime(2022, 11, 24, 9, 30, 0)

# 👇️ 24/11/22
print(d.strftime("%d/%m/%y"))


print(d.year)  # 👉️ 2022

print(d.month)  # 👉️ 11

Or you can remove the square brackets if you didn't intend to access an attribute.

The error means that we are using square brackets to either access a key in a specific object or to access a specific index, however the object doesn't support this functionality.

You should only use square brackets to access subscriptable objects.

The subscriptable objects in Python are:

• list
• tuple
• dictionary
• string

All other objects have to be converted to a subscriptable object by using the list(), tuple(), dict() or str() classes to be able to use bracket notation.

Subscriptable objects implement the __getitem__ method whereas non-subscriptable objects do not.

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a_list = ['bobby', 'hadz', 'com']

# 👇️ <built-in method __getitem__ of list object at 0x7f71f3252640>
print(a_list.__getitem__)

Conclusion #

The Python "TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object is not subscriptable" occurs when we use square brackets to access an index or a key in a datetime object. To solve the error, use dot notation to access an attribute or remove the square brackets accessor.