Detect if a variable is a datetime object

Question

I have a variable and I need to know if it is a datetime object.

So far I have been using the following hack in the function to detect datetime object:

if 'datetime.datetime' in str(type(variable)):
     print('yes')

But there really should be a way to detect what type of object something is. Just like I can do:

if type(variable) is str: print 'yes'

Is there a way to do this other than the hack of turning the name of the object type into a string and seeing if the string contains 'datetime.datetime'?

Answer 1

I believe all the above answer will work only if date is of type datetime.datetime. What if the date object is of type datetime.time or datetime.date?

This is how I find a datetime object. It always worked for me. (Python2 & Python3):

import datetime
type(date_obj) in (datetime, datetime.date, datetime.datetime, datetime.time)

Testing in Python2 or Python3 shell:

import datetime
d = datetime.datetime.now()  # creating a datetime.datetime object.
date = d.date()  # type(date): datetime.date
time = d.time()  # type(time): datetime.time

type(d) in (datetime, datetime.date, datetime.datetime, datetime.time)
True
type(date) in (datetime, datetime.date, datetime.datetime, datetime.time)
True
type(time) in (datetime, datetime.date, datetime.datetime, datetime.time)
True