'>' not supported between instances of 'datetime.datetime' and 'str'

'>' not supported between instances of 'datetime.datetime' and 'str' #

The Python "TypeError: '>' not supported between instances of 'datetime.datetime' and 'str'" occurs when we try to compare a datetime object and a string. To solve the error, use the strptime() method to convert the string to a datetime object before the comparison.

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

Copied!
from datetime import datetime

today = datetime.today()
print(today)  # 👉️ "2022-06-01 16:32:33.536985"

dt = "2026-09-01 16:32:33"

# ⛔️ TypeError: '>' not supported between instances of 'datetime.datetime' and 'str'
print(today > dt)

We used a comparison operator between values of incompatible types (datetime object and str) which caused the error.

To solve the error, we have to use the strptime() method to convert the string to a datetime object.

Copied!
from datetime import datetime

today = datetime.today()
print(today)  # 👉️ "2022-06-01 16:32:33.536985"

# ✅ convert date string to datetime object
dt = datetime.strptime(
    "2026-09-01 16:32:33",
    "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
)

print(dt)  # 👉️ "2026-09-01 16:32:33"

print(today > dt)  # 👉️ False

The values on the left-hand and right-hand sides of the comparison operator need to be of compatible types.

The datetime.strptime() method returns a datetime object that corresponds to the provided date string, parsed according to the format.

Copied!
from datetime import datetime

d = '2022-11-24 09:30:00.000123'

# 👇️ convert string to datetime object
datetime_obj = datetime.strptime(d, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f')

# 👇️ Thursday, 24. November 2022 09:30AM
print(datetime_obj.strftime("%A, %d. %B %Y %I:%M%p"))

The strptime() method takes the following 2 arguments:

For a complete list of the format codes that the strptime method supports, check out this table of the official docs.

Here is an example of converting a string that uses a different format.

Copied!
from datetime import datetime

today = datetime.today()
print(today)  # 👉️ "2022-06-01 16:32:33.536985"

dt = datetime.strptime("2026/11/24 09:30", "%Y/%m/%d %H:%M")
print(dt)  # 👉️ 2026-11-24 09:30:00

print(today < dt)  # 👉️ True

For us to be able to compare the values, they both have to be datetime objects.