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Time series / date functionality

pandas contains extensive capabilities and features for working with time series data for all domains. Using the NumPy datetime64 and timedelta64 dtypes, pandas has consolidated a large number of features from other Python libraries like scikits.timeseries as well as created a tremendous amount of new functionality for manipulating time series data.

For example, pandas supports:

Parsing time series information from various sources and formats

.. ipython:: python

   import datetime

   dti = pd.to_datetime(
       ["1/1/2018", np.datetime64("2018-01-01"), datetime.datetime(2018, 1, 1)]
   )
   dti

Generate sequences of fixed-frequency dates and time spans

.. ipython:: python

   dti = pd.date_range("2018-01-01", periods=3, freq="h")
   dti

Manipulating and converting date times with timezone information

.. ipython:: python

   dti = dti.tz_localize("UTC")
   dti
   dti.tz_convert("US/Pacific")

Resampling or converting a time series to a particular frequency

.. ipython:: python

   idx = pd.date_range("2018-01-01", periods=5, freq="h")
   ts = pd.Series(range(len(idx)), index=idx)
   ts
   ts.resample("2h").mean()

Performing date and time arithmetic with absolute or relative time increments

.. ipython:: python

    friday = pd.Timestamp("2018-01-05")
    friday.day_name()
    # Add 1 day
    saturday = friday + pd.Timedelta("1 day")
    saturday.day_name()
    # Add 1 business day (Friday --> Monday)
    monday = friday + pd.offsets.BDay()
    monday.day_name()

pandas provides a relatively compact and self-contained set of tools for performing the above tasks and more.

Overview

pandas captures 4 general time related concepts:

  1. Date times: A specific date and time with timezone support. Similar to datetime.datetime from the standard library.
  2. Time deltas: An absolute time duration. Similar to datetime.timedelta from the standard library.
  3. Time spans: A span of time defined by a point in time and its associated frequency.
  4. Date offsets: A relative time duration that respects calendar arithmetic. Similar to dateutil.relativedelta.relativedelta from the dateutil package.
Concept Scalar Class Array Class pandas Data Type Primary Creation Method
Date times Timestamp DatetimeIndex datetime64[ns] or datetime64[ns, tz] to_datetime or date_range
Time deltas Timedelta TimedeltaIndex timedelta64[ns] to_timedelta or timedelta_range
Time spans Period PeriodIndex period[freq] Period or period_range
Date offsets DateOffset None None DateOffset

For time series data, it's conventional to represent the time component in the index of a :class:`Series` or :class:`DataFrame` so manipulations can be performed with respect to the time element.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Series(range(3), index=pd.date_range("2000", freq="D", periods=3))

However, :class:`Series` and :class:`DataFrame` can directly also support the time component as data itself.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Series(pd.date_range("2000", freq="D", periods=3))

:class:`Series` and :class:`DataFrame` have extended data type support and functionality for datetime, timedelta and Period data when passed into those constructors. DateOffset data however will be stored as object data.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Series(pd.period_range("1/1/2011", freq="M", periods=3))
   pd.Series([pd.DateOffset(1), pd.DateOffset(2)])
   pd.Series(pd.date_range("1/1/2011", freq="ME", periods=3))

Lastly, pandas represents null date times, time deltas, and time spans as NaT which is useful for representing missing or null date like values and behaves similar as np.nan does for float data.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Timestamp(pd.NaT)
   pd.Timedelta(pd.NaT)
   pd.Period(pd.NaT)
   # Equality acts as np.nan would
   pd.NaT == pd.NaT

Timestamps vs. time spans

Timestamped data is the most basic type of time series data that associates values with points in time. For pandas objects it means using the points in time.

.. ipython:: python

   import datetime

   pd.Timestamp(datetime.datetime(2012, 5, 1))
   pd.Timestamp("2012-05-01")
   pd.Timestamp(2012, 5, 1)

However, in many cases it is more natural to associate things like change variables with a time span instead. The span represented by Period can be specified explicitly, or inferred from datetime string format.

For example:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Period("2011-01")

   pd.Period("2012-05", freq="D")

:class:`Timestamp` and :class:`Period` can serve as an index. Lists of Timestamp and Period are automatically coerced to :class:`DatetimeIndex` and :class:`PeriodIndex` respectively.

.. ipython:: python

   dates = [
       pd.Timestamp("2012-05-01"),
       pd.Timestamp("2012-05-02"),
       pd.Timestamp("2012-05-03"),
   ]
   ts = pd.Series(np.random.randn(3), dates)

   type(ts.index)
   ts.index

   ts

   periods = [pd.Period("2012-01"), pd.Period("2012-02"), pd.Period("2012-03")]

   ts = pd.Series(np.random.randn(3), periods)

   type(ts.index)
   ts.index

   ts

pandas allows you to capture both representations and convert between them. Under the hood, pandas represents timestamps using instances of Timestamp and sequences of timestamps using instances of DatetimeIndex. For regular time spans, pandas uses Period objects for scalar values and PeriodIndex for sequences of spans. Better support for irregular intervals with arbitrary start and end points are forth-coming in future releases.

Converting to timestamps

To convert a :class:`Series` or list-like object of date-like objects e.g. strings, epochs, or a mixture, you can use the to_datetime function. When passed a Series, this returns a Series (with the same index), while a list-like is converted to a DatetimeIndex:

.. ipython:: python

    pd.to_datetime(pd.Series(["Jul 31, 2009", "Jan 10, 2010", None]))

    pd.to_datetime(["2005/11/23", "2010/12/31"])

If you use dates which start with the day first (i.e. European style), you can pass the dayfirst flag:

.. ipython:: python
    :okwarning:

    pd.to_datetime(["04-01-2012 10:00"], dayfirst=True)

    pd.to_datetime(["04-14-2012 10:00"], dayfirst=True)

Warning

You see in the above example that dayfirst isn't strict. If a date can't be parsed with the day being first it will be parsed as if dayfirst were False and a warning will also be raised.

If you pass a single string to to_datetime, it returns a single Timestamp. Timestamp can also accept string input, but it doesn't accept string parsing options like dayfirst or format, so use to_datetime if these are required.

.. ipython:: python

    pd.to_datetime("2010/11/12")

    pd.Timestamp("2010/11/12")

You can also use the DatetimeIndex constructor directly:

.. ipython:: python

    pd.DatetimeIndex(["2018-01-01", "2018-01-03", "2018-01-05"])

The string 'infer' can be passed in order to set the frequency of the index as the inferred frequency upon creation:

.. ipython:: python

    pd.DatetimeIndex(["2018-01-01", "2018-01-03", "2018-01-05"], freq="infer")

Providing a format argument

In addition to the required datetime string, a format argument can be passed to ensure specific parsing. This could also potentially speed up the conversion considerably.

.. ipython:: python

    pd.to_datetime("2010/11/12", format="%Y/%m/%d")

    pd.to_datetime("12-11-2010 00:00", format="%d-%m-%Y %H:%M")

For more information on the choices available when specifying the format option, see the Python datetime documentation.

Assembling datetime from multiple DataFrame columns

You can also pass a DataFrame of integer or string columns to assemble into a Series of Timestamps.

.. ipython:: python

   df = pd.DataFrame(
       {"year": [2015, 2016], "month": [2, 3], "day": [4, 5], "hour": [2, 3]}
   )
   pd.to_datetime(df)


You can pass only the columns that you need to assemble.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.to_datetime(df[["year", "month", "day"]])

pd.to_datetime looks for standard designations of the datetime component in the column names, including:

  • required: year, month, day
  • optional: hour, minute, second, millisecond, microsecond, nanosecond

Invalid data

The default behavior, errors='raise', is to raise when unparsable:

.. ipython:: python
   :okexcept:

   pd.to_datetime(['2009/07/31', 'asd'], errors='raise')

Pass errors='ignore' to return the original input when unparsable:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.to_datetime(["2009/07/31", "asd"], errors="ignore")

Pass errors='coerce' to convert unparsable data to NaT (not a time):

.. ipython:: python

   pd.to_datetime(["2009/07/31", "asd"], errors="coerce")


Epoch timestamps

pandas supports converting integer or float epoch times to Timestamp and DatetimeIndex. The default unit is nanoseconds, since that is how Timestamp objects are stored internally. However, epochs are often stored in another unit which can be specified. These are computed from the starting point specified by the origin parameter.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.to_datetime(
       [1349720105, 1349806505, 1349892905, 1349979305, 1350065705], unit="s"
   )

   pd.to_datetime(
       [1349720105100, 1349720105200, 1349720105300, 1349720105400, 1349720105500],
       unit="ms",
   )

Note

The unit parameter does not use the same strings as the format parameter that was discussed :ref:`above<timeseries.converting.format>`). The available units are listed on the documentation for :func:`pandas.to_datetime`.

Constructing a :class:`Timestamp` or :class:`DatetimeIndex` with an epoch timestamp with the tz argument specified will raise a ValueError. If you have epochs in wall time in another timezone, you can read the epochs as timezone-naive timestamps and then localize to the appropriate timezone:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Timestamp(1262347200000000000).tz_localize("US/Pacific")
   pd.DatetimeIndex([1262347200000000000]).tz_localize("US/Pacific")

Note

Epoch times will be rounded to the nearest nanosecond.

Warning

Conversion of float epoch times can lead to inaccurate and unexpected results. :ref:`Python floats <python:tut-fp-issues>` have about 15 digits precision in decimal. Rounding during conversion from float to high precision Timestamp is unavoidable. The only way to achieve exact precision is to use a fixed-width types (e.g. an int64).

.. ipython:: python

   pd.to_datetime([1490195805.433, 1490195805.433502912], unit="s")
   pd.to_datetime(1490195805433502912, unit="ns")
.. seealso::

   :ref:`timeseries.origin`

From timestamps to epoch

To invert the operation from above, namely, to convert from a Timestamp to a 'unix' epoch:

.. ipython:: python

   stamps = pd.date_range("2012-10-08 18:15:05", periods=4, freq="D")
   stamps

We subtract the epoch (midnight at January 1, 1970 UTC) and then floor divide by the "unit" (1 second).

.. ipython:: python

   (stamps - pd.Timestamp("1970-01-01")) // pd.Timedelta("1s")

Using the origin parameter

Using the origin parameter, one can specify an alternative starting point for creation of a DatetimeIndex. For example, to use 1960-01-01 as the starting date:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.to_datetime([1, 2, 3], unit="D", origin=pd.Timestamp("1960-01-01"))

The default is set at origin='unix', which defaults to 1970-01-01 00:00:00. Commonly called 'unix epoch' or POSIX time.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.to_datetime([1, 2, 3], unit="D")

Generating ranges of timestamps

To generate an index with timestamps, you can use either the DatetimeIndex or Index constructor and pass in a list of datetime objects:

.. ipython:: python

   dates = [
       datetime.datetime(2012, 5, 1),
       datetime.datetime(2012, 5, 2),
       datetime.datetime(2012, 5, 3),
   ]

   # Note the frequency information
   index = pd.DatetimeIndex(dates)
   index

   # Automatically converted to DatetimeIndex
   index = pd.Index(dates)
   index

In practice this becomes very cumbersome because we often need a very long index with a large number of timestamps. If we need timestamps on a regular frequency, we can use the :func:`date_range` and :func:`bdate_range` functions to create a DatetimeIndex. The default frequency for date_range is a calendar day while the default for bdate_range is a business day:

.. ipython:: python

   start = datetime.datetime(2011, 1, 1)
   end = datetime.datetime(2012, 1, 1)

   index = pd.date_range(start, end)
   index

   index = pd.bdate_range(start, end)
   index

Convenience functions like date_range and bdate_range can utilize a variety of :ref:`frequency aliases <timeseries.offset_aliases>`:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.date_range(start, periods=1000, freq="ME")

   pd.bdate_range(start, periods=250, freq="BQS")

date_range and bdate_range make it easy to generate a range of dates using various combinations of parameters like start, end, periods, and freq. The start and end dates are strictly inclusive, so dates outside of those specified will not be generated:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.date_range(start, end, freq="BME")

   pd.date_range(start, end, freq="W")

   pd.bdate_range(end=end, periods=20)

   pd.bdate_range(start=start, periods=20)

Specifying start, end, and periods will generate a range of evenly spaced dates from start to end inclusively, with periods number of elements in the resulting DatetimeIndex:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.date_range("2018-01-01", "2018-01-05", periods=5)

   pd.date_range("2018-01-01", "2018-01-05", periods=10)

Custom frequency ranges

bdate_range can also generate a range of custom frequency dates by using the weekmask and holidays parameters. These parameters will only be used if a custom frequency string is passed.

.. ipython:: python

   weekmask = "Mon Wed Fri"

   holidays = [datetime.datetime(2011, 1, 5), datetime.datetime(2011, 3, 14)]

   pd.bdate_range(start, end, freq="C", weekmask=weekmask, holidays=holidays)

   pd.bdate_range(start, end, freq="CBMS", weekmask=weekmask)

.. seealso::

   :ref:`timeseries.custombusinessdays`

Timestamp limitations

The limits of timestamp representation depend on the chosen resolution. For nanosecond resolution, the time span that can be represented using a 64-bit integer is limited to approximately 584 years:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Timestamp.min
   pd.Timestamp.max

When choosing second-resolution, the available range grows to +/- 2.9e11 years. Different resolutions can be converted to each other through as_unit.

.. seealso::

   :ref:`timeseries.oob`

Indexing

One of the main uses for DatetimeIndex is as an index for pandas objects. The DatetimeIndex class contains many time series related optimizations:

  • A large range of dates for various offsets are pre-computed and cached under the hood in order to make generating subsequent date ranges very fast (just have to grab a slice).
  • Fast shifting using the shift method on pandas objects.
  • Unioning of overlapping DatetimeIndex objects with the same frequency is very fast (important for fast data alignment).
  • Quick access to date fields via properties such as year, month, etc.
  • Regularization functions like snap and very fast asof logic.

DatetimeIndex objects have all the basic functionality of regular Index objects, and a smorgasbord of advanced time series specific methods for easy frequency processing.

.. seealso::
    :ref:`Reindexing methods <basics.reindexing>`

Note

While pandas does not force you to have a sorted date index, some of these methods may have unexpected or incorrect behavior if the dates are unsorted.

DatetimeIndex can be used like a regular index and offers all of its intelligent functionality like selection, slicing, etc.

.. ipython:: python

   rng = pd.date_range(start, end, freq="BME")
   ts = pd.Series(np.random.randn(len(rng)), index=rng)
   ts.index
   ts[:5].index
   ts[::2].index

Partial string indexing

Dates and strings that parse to timestamps can be passed as indexing parameters:

.. ipython:: python

   ts["1/31/2011"]

   ts[datetime.datetime(2011, 12, 25):]

   ts["10/31/2011":"12/31/2011"]

To provide convenience for accessing longer time series, you can also pass in the year or year and month as strings:

.. ipython:: python

   ts["2011"]

   ts["2011-6"]

This type of slicing will work on a DataFrame with a DatetimeIndex as well. Since the partial string selection is a form of label slicing, the endpoints will be included. This would include matching times on an included date:

Warning

Indexing DataFrame rows with a single string with getitem (e.g. frame[dtstring]) is deprecated starting with pandas 1.2.0 (given the ambiguity whether it is indexing the rows or selecting a column) and will be removed in a future version. The equivalent with .loc (e.g. frame.loc[dtstring]) is still supported.

.. ipython:: python

   dft = pd.DataFrame(
       np.random.randn(100000, 1),
       columns=["A"],
       index=pd.date_range("20130101", periods=100000, freq="min"),
   )
   dft
   dft.loc["2013"]

This starts on the very first time in the month, and includes the last date and time for the month:

.. ipython:: python

   dft["2013-1":"2013-2"]

This specifies a stop time that includes all of the times on the last day:

.. ipython:: python

   dft["2013-1":"2013-2-28"]

This specifies an exact stop time (and is not the same as the above):

.. ipython:: python

   dft["2013-1":"2013-2-28 00:00:00"]

We are stopping on the included end-point as it is part of the index:

.. ipython:: python

   dft["2013-1-15":"2013-1-15 12:30:00"]

DatetimeIndex partial string indexing also works on a DataFrame with a MultiIndex:

.. ipython:: python

   dft2 = pd.DataFrame(
       np.random.randn(20, 1),
       columns=["A"],
       index=pd.MultiIndex.from_product(
           [pd.date_range("20130101", periods=10, freq="12h"), ["a", "b"]]
       ),
   )
   dft2
   dft2.loc["2013-01-05"]
   idx = pd.IndexSlice
   dft2 = dft2.swaplevel(0, 1).sort_index()
   dft2.loc[idx[:, "2013-01-05"], :]

Slicing with string indexing also honors UTC offset.

.. ipython:: python

    df = pd.DataFrame([0], index=pd.DatetimeIndex(["2019-01-01"], tz="US/Pacific"))
    df
    df["2019-01-01 12:00:00+04:00":"2019-01-01 13:00:00+04:00"]

Slice vs. exact match

The same string used as an indexing parameter can be treated either as a slice or as an exact match depending on the resolution of the index. If the string is less accurate than the index, it will be treated as a slice, otherwise as an exact match.

Consider a Series object with a minute resolution index:

.. ipython:: python

    series_minute = pd.Series(
        [1, 2, 3],
        pd.DatetimeIndex(
            ["2011-12-31 23:59:00", "2012-01-01 00:00:00", "2012-01-01 00:02:00"]
        ),
    )
    series_minute.index.resolution

A timestamp string less accurate than a minute gives a Series object.

.. ipython:: python

    series_minute["2011-12-31 23"]

A timestamp string with minute resolution (or more accurate), gives a scalar instead, i.e. it is not casted to a slice.

.. ipython:: python

    series_minute["2011-12-31 23:59"]
    series_minute["2011-12-31 23:59:00"]

If index resolution is second, then the minute-accurate timestamp gives a Series.

.. ipython:: python

    series_second = pd.Series(
        [1, 2, 3],
        pd.DatetimeIndex(
            ["2011-12-31 23:59:59", "2012-01-01 00:00:00", "2012-01-01 00:00:01"]
        ),
    )
    series_second.index.resolution
    series_second["2011-12-31 23:59"]

If the timestamp string is treated as a slice, it can be used to index DataFrame with .loc[] as well.

.. ipython:: python

    dft_minute = pd.DataFrame(
        {"a": [1, 2, 3], "b": [4, 5, 6]}, index=series_minute.index
    )
    dft_minute.loc["2011-12-31 23"]


Warning

However, if the string is treated as an exact match, the selection in DataFrame's [] will be column-wise and not row-wise, see :ref:`Indexing Basics <indexing.basics>`. For example dft_minute['2011-12-31 23:59'] will raise KeyError as '2012-12-31 23:59' has the same resolution as the index and there is no column with such name:

To always have unambiguous selection, whether the row is treated as a slice or a single selection, use .loc.

.. ipython:: python

   dft_minute.loc["2011-12-31 23:59"]

Note also that DatetimeIndex resolution cannot be less precise than day.

.. ipython:: python

    series_monthly = pd.Series(
        [1, 2, 3], pd.DatetimeIndex(["2011-12", "2012-01", "2012-02"])
    )
    series_monthly.index.resolution
    series_monthly["2011-12"]  # returns Series


Exact indexing

As discussed in previous section, indexing a DatetimeIndex with a partial string depends on the "accuracy" of the period, in other words how specific the interval is in relation to the resolution of the index. In contrast, indexing with Timestamp or datetime objects is exact, because the objects have exact meaning. These also follow the semantics of including both endpoints.

These Timestamp and datetime objects have exact hours, minutes, and seconds, even though they were not explicitly specified (they are 0).

.. ipython:: python

   dft[datetime.datetime(2013, 1, 1): datetime.datetime(2013, 2, 28)]

With no defaults.

.. ipython:: python

   dft[
       datetime.datetime(2013, 1, 1, 10, 12, 0): datetime.datetime(
           2013, 2, 28, 10, 12, 0
       )
   ]

Truncating & fancy indexing

A :meth:`~DataFrame.truncate` convenience function is provided that is similar to slicing. Note that truncate assumes a 0 value for any unspecified date component in a DatetimeIndex in contrast to slicing which returns any partially matching dates:

.. ipython:: python

   rng2 = pd.date_range("2011-01-01", "2012-01-01", freq="W")
   ts2 = pd.Series(np.random.randn(len(rng2)), index=rng2)

   ts2.truncate(before="2011-11", after="2011-12")
   ts2["2011-11":"2011-12"]

Even complicated fancy indexing that breaks the DatetimeIndex frequency regularity will result in a DatetimeIndex, although frequency is lost:

.. ipython:: python

   ts2.iloc[[0, 2, 6]].index

Time/date components

There are several time/date properties that one can access from Timestamp or a collection of timestamps like a DatetimeIndex.

Property Description
year The year of the datetime
month The month of the datetime
day The days of the datetime
hour The hour of the datetime
minute The minutes of the datetime
second The seconds of the datetime
microsecond The microseconds of the datetime
nanosecond The nanoseconds of the datetime
date Returns datetime.date (does not contain timezone information)
time Returns datetime.time (does not contain timezone information)
timetz Returns datetime.time as local time with timezone information
dayofyear The ordinal day of year
day_of_year The ordinal day of year
weekofyear The week ordinal of the year
week The week ordinal of the year
dayofweek The number of the day of the week with Monday=0, Sunday=6
day_of_week The number of the day of the week with Monday=0, Sunday=6
weekday The number of the day of the week with Monday=0, Sunday=6
quarter Quarter of the date: Jan-Mar = 1, Apr-Jun = 2, etc.
days_in_month The number of days in the month of the datetime
is_month_start Logical indicating if first day of month (defined by frequency)
is_month_end Logical indicating if last day of month (defined by frequency)
is_quarter_start Logical indicating if first day of quarter (defined by frequency)
is_quarter_end Logical indicating if last day of quarter (defined by frequency)
is_year_start Logical indicating if first day of year (defined by frequency)
is_year_end Logical indicating if last day of year (defined by frequency)
is_leap_year Logical indicating if the date belongs to a leap year

Furthermore, if you have a Series with datetimelike values, then you can access these properties via the .dt accessor, as detailed in the section on :ref:`.dt accessors<basics.dt_accessors>`.

You may obtain the year, week and day components of the ISO year from the ISO 8601 standard:

.. ipython:: python

   idx = pd.date_range(start="2019-12-29", freq="D", periods=4)
   idx.isocalendar()
   idx.to_series().dt.isocalendar()

DateOffset objects

In the preceding examples, frequency strings (e.g. 'D') were used to specify a frequency that defined:

These frequency strings map to a :class:`DateOffset` object and its subclasses. A :class:`DateOffset` is similar to a :class:`Timedelta` that represents a duration of time but follows specific calendar duration rules. For example, a :class:`Timedelta` day will always increment datetimes by 24 hours, while a :class:`DateOffset` day will increment datetimes to the same time the next day whether a day represents 23, 24 or 25 hours due to daylight savings time. However, all :class:`DateOffset` subclasses that are an hour or smaller (Hour, Minute, Second, Milli, Micro, Nano) behave like :class:`Timedelta` and respect absolute time.

The basic :class:`DateOffset` acts similar to dateutil.relativedelta (relativedelta documentation) that shifts a date time by the corresponding calendar duration specified. The arithmetic operator (+) can be used to perform the shift.

.. ipython:: python

   # This particular day contains a day light savings time transition
   ts = pd.Timestamp("2016-10-30 00:00:00", tz="Europe/Helsinki")
   # Respects absolute time
   ts + pd.Timedelta(days=1)
   # Respects calendar time
   ts + pd.DateOffset(days=1)
   friday = pd.Timestamp("2018-01-05")
   friday.day_name()
   # Add 2 business days (Friday --> Tuesday)
   two_business_days = 2 * pd.offsets.BDay()
   friday + two_business_days
   (friday + two_business_days).day_name()


Most DateOffsets have associated frequencies strings, or offset aliases, that can be passed into freq keyword arguments. The available date offsets and associated frequency strings can be found below:

Date Offset Frequency String Description
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.DateOffset` None Generic offset class, defaults to absolute 24 hours
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BDay` or :class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BusinessDay` 'B' business day (weekday)
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.CDay` or :class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.CustomBusinessDay` 'C' custom business day
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.Week` 'W' one week, optionally anchored on a day of the week
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.WeekOfMonth` 'WOM' the x-th day of the y-th week of each month
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.LastWeekOfMonth` 'LWOM' the x-th day of the last week of each month
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.MonthEnd` 'ME' calendar month end
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.MonthBegin` 'MS' calendar month begin
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BMonthEnd` or :class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BusinessMonthEnd` 'BME' business month end
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BMonthBegin` or :class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BusinessMonthBegin` 'BMS' business month begin
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.CBMonthEnd` or :class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.CustomBusinessMonthEnd` 'CBME' custom business month end
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.CBMonthBegin` or :class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.CustomBusinessMonthBegin` 'CBMS' custom business month begin
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.SemiMonthEnd` 'SM' 15th (or other day_of_month) and calendar month end
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.SemiMonthBegin` 'SMS' 15th (or other day_of_month) and calendar month begin
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.QuarterEnd` 'QE' calendar quarter end
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.QuarterBegin` 'QS' calendar quarter begin
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BQuarterEnd` 'BQ business quarter end
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BQuarterBegin` 'BQS' business quarter begin
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.FY5253Quarter` 'REQ' retail (aka 52-53 week) quarter
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.YearEnd` 'Y' calendar year end
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.YearBegin` 'YS' or 'BYS' calendar year begin
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BYearEnd` 'BY' business year end
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BYearBegin` 'BYS' business year begin
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.FY5253` 'RE' retail (aka 52-53 week) year
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.Easter` None Easter holiday
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BusinessHour` 'bh' business hour
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.CustomBusinessHour` 'cbh' custom business hour
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.Day` 'D' one absolute day
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.Hour` 'h' one hour
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.Minute` 'min' one minute
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.Second` 's' one second
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.Milli` 'ms' one millisecond
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.Micro` 'us' one microsecond
:class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.Nano` 'ns' one nanosecond

DateOffsets additionally have :meth:`rollforward` and :meth:`rollback` methods for moving a date forward or backward respectively to a valid offset date relative to the offset. For example, business offsets will roll dates that land on the weekends (Saturday and Sunday) forward to Monday since business offsets operate on the weekdays.

.. ipython:: python

   ts = pd.Timestamp("2018-01-06 00:00:00")
   ts.day_name()
   # BusinessHour's valid offset dates are Monday through Friday
   offset = pd.offsets.BusinessHour(start="09:00")
   # Bring the date to the closest offset date (Monday)
   offset.rollforward(ts)
   # Date is brought to the closest offset date first and then the hour is added
   ts + offset

These operations preserve time (hour, minute, etc) information by default. To reset time to midnight, use :meth:`normalize` before or after applying the operation (depending on whether you want the time information included in the operation).

.. ipython:: python

   ts = pd.Timestamp("2014-01-01 09:00")
   day = pd.offsets.Day()
   day + ts
   (day + ts).normalize()

   ts = pd.Timestamp("2014-01-01 22:00")
   hour = pd.offsets.Hour()
   hour + ts
   (hour + ts).normalize()
   (hour + pd.Timestamp("2014-01-01 23:30")).normalize()

Parametric offsets

Some of the offsets can be "parameterized" when created to result in different behaviors. For example, the Week offset for generating weekly data accepts a weekday parameter which results in the generated dates always lying on a particular day of the week:

.. ipython:: python

   d = datetime.datetime(2008, 8, 18, 9, 0)
   d
   d + pd.offsets.Week()
   d + pd.offsets.Week(weekday=4)
   (d + pd.offsets.Week(weekday=4)).weekday()

   d - pd.offsets.Week()

The normalize option will be effective for addition and subtraction.

.. ipython:: python

   d + pd.offsets.Week(normalize=True)
   d - pd.offsets.Week(normalize=True)


Another example is parameterizing YearEnd with the specific ending month:

.. ipython:: python

   d + pd.offsets.YearEnd()
   d + pd.offsets.YearEnd(month=6)


Using offsets with Series / DatetimeIndex

Offsets can be used with either a Series or DatetimeIndex to apply the offset to each element.

.. ipython:: python

   rng = pd.date_range("2012-01-01", "2012-01-03")
   s = pd.Series(rng)
   rng
   rng + pd.DateOffset(months=2)
   s + pd.DateOffset(months=2)
   s - pd.DateOffset(months=2)

If the offset class maps directly to a Timedelta (Day, Hour, Minute, Second, Micro, Milli, Nano) it can be used exactly like a Timedelta - see the :ref:`Timedelta section<timedeltas.operations>` for more examples.

.. ipython:: python

   s - pd.offsets.Day(2)
   td = s - pd.Series(pd.date_range("2011-12-29", "2011-12-31"))
   td
   td + pd.offsets.Minute(15)

Note that some offsets (such as BQuarterEnd) do not have a vectorized implementation. They can still be used but may calculate significantly slower and will show a PerformanceWarning

.. ipython:: python
   :okwarning:

   rng + pd.offsets.BQuarterEnd()


Custom business days

The CDay or CustomBusinessDay class provides a parametric BusinessDay class which can be used to create customized business day calendars which account for local holidays and local weekend conventions.

As an interesting example, let's look at Egypt where a Friday-Saturday weekend is observed.

.. ipython:: python

    weekmask_egypt = "Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu"

    # They also observe International Workers' Day so let's
    # add that for a couple of years

    holidays = [
        "2012-05-01",
        datetime.datetime(2013, 5, 1),
        np.datetime64("2014-05-01"),
    ]
    bday_egypt = pd.offsets.CustomBusinessDay(
        holidays=holidays,
        weekmask=weekmask_egypt,
    )
    dt = datetime.datetime(2013, 4, 30)
    dt + 2 * bday_egypt

Let's map to the weekday names:

.. ipython:: python

    dts = pd.date_range(dt, periods=5, freq=bday_egypt)

    pd.Series(dts.weekday, dts).map(pd.Series("Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun".split()))

Holiday calendars can be used to provide the list of holidays. See the :ref:`holiday calendar<timeseries.holiday>` section for more information.

.. ipython:: python

    from pandas.tseries.holiday import USFederalHolidayCalendar

    bday_us = pd.offsets.CustomBusinessDay(calendar=USFederalHolidayCalendar())

    # Friday before MLK Day
    dt = datetime.datetime(2014, 1, 17)

    # Tuesday after MLK Day (Monday is skipped because it's a holiday)
    dt + bday_us

Monthly offsets that respect a certain holiday calendar can be defined in the usual way.

.. ipython:: python

    bmth_us = pd.offsets.CustomBusinessMonthBegin(calendar=USFederalHolidayCalendar())

    # Skip new years
    dt = datetime.datetime(2013, 12, 17)
    dt + bmth_us

    # Define date index with custom offset
    pd.date_range(start="20100101", end="20120101", freq=bmth_us)

Note

The frequency string 'C' is used to indicate that a CustomBusinessDay DateOffset is used, it is important to note that since CustomBusinessDay is a parameterised type, instances of CustomBusinessDay may differ and this is not detectable from the 'C' frequency string. The user therefore needs to ensure that the 'C' frequency string is used consistently within the user's application.

Business hour

The BusinessHour class provides a business hour representation on BusinessDay, allowing to use specific start and end times.

By default, BusinessHour uses 9:00 - 17:00 as business hours. Adding BusinessHour will increment Timestamp by hourly frequency. If target Timestamp is out of business hours, move to the next business hour then increment it. If the result exceeds the business hours end, the remaining hours are added to the next business day.

.. ipython:: python

    bh = pd.offsets.BusinessHour()
    bh

    # 2014-08-01 is Friday
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 10:00").weekday()
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 10:00") + bh

    # Below example is the same as: pd.Timestamp('2014-08-01 09:00') + bh
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 08:00") + bh

    # If the results is on the end time, move to the next business day
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 16:00") + bh

    # Remainings are added to the next day
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 16:30") + bh

    # Adding 2 business hours
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 10:00") + pd.offsets.BusinessHour(2)

    # Subtracting 3 business hours
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 10:00") + pd.offsets.BusinessHour(-3)

You can also specify start and end time by keywords. The argument must be a str with an hour:minute representation or a datetime.time instance. Specifying seconds, microseconds and nanoseconds as business hour results in ValueError.

.. ipython:: python

    bh = pd.offsets.BusinessHour(start="11:00", end=datetime.time(20, 0))
    bh

    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 13:00") + bh
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 09:00") + bh
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 18:00") + bh

Passing start time later than end represents midnight business hour. In this case, business hour exceeds midnight and overlap to the next day. Valid business hours are distinguished by whether it started from valid BusinessDay.

.. ipython:: python

    bh = pd.offsets.BusinessHour(start="17:00", end="09:00")
    bh

    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 17:00") + bh
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-01 23:00") + bh

    # Although 2014-08-02 is Saturday,
    # it is valid because it starts from 08-01 (Friday).
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-02 04:00") + bh

    # Although 2014-08-04 is Monday,
    # it is out of business hours because it starts from 08-03 (Sunday).
    pd.Timestamp("2014-08-04 04:00") + bh

Applying BusinessHour.rollforward and rollback to out of business hours results in the next business hour start or previous day's end. Different from other offsets, BusinessHour.rollforward may output different results from apply by definition.

This is because one day's business hour end is equal to next day's business hour start. For example, under the default business hours (9:00 - 17:00), there is no gap (0 minutes) between 2014-08-01 17:00 and 2014-08-04 09:00.

.. ipython:: python

    # This adjusts a Timestamp to business hour edge
    pd.offsets.BusinessHour().rollback(pd.Timestamp("2014-08-02 15:00"))
    pd.offsets.BusinessHour().rollforward(pd.Timestamp("2014-08-02 15:00"))

    # It is the same as BusinessHour() + pd.Timestamp('2014-08-01 17:00').
    # And it is the same as BusinessHour() + pd.Timestamp('2014-08-04 09:00')
    pd.offsets.BusinessHour() + pd.Timestamp("2014-08-02 15:00")

    # BusinessDay results (for reference)
    pd.offsets.BusinessHour().rollforward(pd.Timestamp("2014-08-02"))

    # It is the same as BusinessDay() + pd.Timestamp('2014-08-01')
    # The result is the same as rollworward because BusinessDay never overlap.
    pd.offsets.BusinessHour() + pd.Timestamp("2014-08-02")

BusinessHour regards Saturday and Sunday as holidays. To use arbitrary holidays, you can use CustomBusinessHour offset, as explained in the following subsection.

Custom business hour

The CustomBusinessHour is a mixture of BusinessHour and CustomBusinessDay which allows you to specify arbitrary holidays. CustomBusinessHour works as the same as BusinessHour except that it skips specified custom holidays.

.. ipython:: python

    from pandas.tseries.holiday import USFederalHolidayCalendar

    bhour_us = pd.offsets.CustomBusinessHour(calendar=USFederalHolidayCalendar())
    # Friday before MLK Day
    dt = datetime.datetime(2014, 1, 17, 15)

    dt + bhour_us

    # Tuesday after MLK Day (Monday is skipped because it's a holiday)
    dt + bhour_us * 2

You can use keyword arguments supported by either BusinessHour and CustomBusinessDay.

.. ipython:: python

    bhour_mon = pd.offsets.CustomBusinessHour(start="10:00", weekmask="Tue Wed Thu Fri")

    # Monday is skipped because it's a holiday, business hour starts from 10:00
    dt + bhour_mon * 2

Offset aliases

A number of string aliases are given to useful common time series frequencies. We will refer to these aliases as offset aliases.

Alias Description
B business day frequency
C custom business day frequency
D calendar day frequency
W weekly frequency
ME month end frequency
SM semi-month end frequency (15th and end of month)
BME business month end frequency
CBME custom business month end frequency
MS month start frequency
SMS semi-month start frequency (1st and 15th)
BMS business month start frequency
CBMS custom business month start frequency
QE quarter end frequency
BQ business quarter end frequency
QS quarter start frequency
BQS business quarter start frequency
Y year end frequency
BY business year end frequency
YS year start frequency
BYS business year start frequency
h hourly frequency
bh business hour frequency
cbh custom business hour frequency
min minutely frequency
s secondly frequency
ms milliseconds
us microseconds
ns nanoseconds
.. deprecated:: 2.2.0

   Aliases ``H``, ``BH``, ``CBH``, ``T``, ``S``, ``L``, ``U``, and ``N``
   are deprecated in favour of the aliases ``h``, ``bh``, ``cbh``,
   ``min``, ``s``, ``ms``, ``us``, and ``ns``.

Note

When using the offset aliases above, it should be noted that functions such as :func:`date_range`, :func:`bdate_range`, will only return timestamps that are in the interval defined by start_date and end_date. If the start_date does not correspond to the frequency, the returned timestamps will start at the next valid timestamp, same for end_date, the returned timestamps will stop at the previous valid timestamp.

For example, for the offset MS, if the start_date is not the first of the month, the returned timestamps will start with the first day of the next month. If end_date is not the first day of a month, the last returned timestamp will be the first day of the corresponding month.

.. ipython:: python

    dates_lst_1 = pd.date_range("2020-01-06", "2020-04-03", freq="MS")
    dates_lst_1

    dates_lst_2 = pd.date_range("2020-01-01", "2020-04-01", freq="MS")
    dates_lst_2

We can see in the above example :func:`date_range` and :func:`bdate_range` will only return the valid timestamps between the start_date and end_date. If these are not valid timestamps for the given frequency it will roll to the next value for start_date (respectively previous for the end_date)

Period aliases

A number of string aliases are given to useful common time series frequencies. We will refer to these aliases as period aliases.

Alias Description
B business day frequency
D calendar day frequency
W weekly frequency
M monthly frequency
Q quarterly frequency
Y yearly frequency
h hourly frequency
min minutely frequency
s secondly frequency
ms milliseconds
us microseconds
ns nanoseconds
.. deprecated:: 2.2.0

   Aliases ``A``, ``H``, ``T``, ``S``, ``L``, ``U``, and ``N`` are deprecated in favour of the aliases
   ``Y``, ``h``, ``min``, ``s``, ``ms``, ``us``, and ``ns``.


Combining aliases

As we have seen previously, the alias and the offset instance are fungible in most functions:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.date_range(start, periods=5, freq="B")

   pd.date_range(start, periods=5, freq=pd.offsets.BDay())

You can combine together day and intraday offsets:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.date_range(start, periods=10, freq="2h20min")

   pd.date_range(start, periods=10, freq="1D10us")

Anchored offsets

For some frequencies you can specify an anchoring suffix:

Alias Description
W-SUN weekly frequency (Sundays). Same as 'W'
W-MON weekly frequency (Mondays)
W-TUE weekly frequency (Tuesdays)
W-WED weekly frequency (Wednesdays)
W-THU weekly frequency (Thursdays)
W-FRI weekly frequency (Fridays)
W-SAT weekly frequency (Saturdays)
(B)Q(E)(S)-DEC quarterly frequency, year ends in December. Same as 'QE'
(B)Q(E)(S)-JAN quarterly frequency, year ends in January
(B)Q(E)(S)-FEB quarterly frequency, year ends in February
(B)Q(E)(S)-MAR quarterly frequency, year ends in March
(B)Q(E)(S)-APR quarterly frequency, year ends in April
(B)Q(E)(S)-MAY quarterly frequency, year ends in May
(B)Q(E)(S)-JUN quarterly frequency, year ends in June
(B)Q(E)(S)-JUL quarterly frequency, year ends in July
(B)Q(E)(S)-AUG quarterly frequency, year ends in August
(B)Q(E)(S)-SEP quarterly frequency, year ends in September
(B)Q(E)(S)-OCT quarterly frequency, year ends in October
(B)Q(E)(S)-NOV quarterly frequency, year ends in November
(B)Y(S)-DEC annual frequency, anchored end of December. Same as 'Y'
(B)Y(S)-JAN annual frequency, anchored end of January
(B)Y(S)-FEB annual frequency, anchored end of February
(B)Y(S)-MAR annual frequency, anchored end of March
(B)Y(S)-APR annual frequency, anchored end of April
(B)Y(S)-MAY annual frequency, anchored end of May
(B)Y(S)-JUN annual frequency, anchored end of June
(B)Y(S)-JUL annual frequency, anchored end of July
(B)Y(S)-AUG annual frequency, anchored end of August
(B)Y(S)-SEP annual frequency, anchored end of September
(B)Y(S)-OCT annual frequency, anchored end of October
(B)Y(S)-NOV annual frequency, anchored end of November

These can be used as arguments to date_range, bdate_range, constructors for DatetimeIndex, as well as various other timeseries-related functions in pandas.

Anchored offset semantics

For those offsets that are anchored to the start or end of specific frequency (MonthEnd, MonthBegin, WeekEnd, etc), the following rules apply to rolling forward and backwards.

When n is not 0, if the given date is not on an anchor point, it snapped to the next(previous) anchor point, and moved |n|-1 additional steps forwards or backwards.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-02") + pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=1)
   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-02") + pd.offsets.MonthEnd(n=1)

   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-02") - pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=1)
   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-02") - pd.offsets.MonthEnd(n=1)

   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-02") + pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=4)
   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-02") - pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=4)

If the given date is on an anchor point, it is moved |n| points forwards or backwards.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-01") + pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=1)
   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-31") + pd.offsets.MonthEnd(n=1)

   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-01") - pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=1)
   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-31") - pd.offsets.MonthEnd(n=1)

   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-01") + pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=4)
   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-31") - pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=4)

For the case when n=0, the date is not moved if on an anchor point, otherwise it is rolled forward to the next anchor point.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-02") + pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=0)
   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-02") + pd.offsets.MonthEnd(n=0)

   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-01") + pd.offsets.MonthBegin(n=0)
   pd.Timestamp("2014-01-31") + pd.offsets.MonthEnd(n=0)

Holidays / holiday calendars

Holidays and calendars provide a simple way to define holiday rules to be used with CustomBusinessDay or in other analysis that requires a predefined set of holidays. The AbstractHolidayCalendar class provides all the necessary methods to return a list of holidays and only rules need to be defined in a specific holiday calendar class. Furthermore, the start_date and end_date class attributes determine over what date range holidays are generated. These should be overwritten on the AbstractHolidayCalendar class to have the range apply to all calendar subclasses. USFederalHolidayCalendar is the only calendar that exists and primarily serves as an example for developing other calendars.

For holidays that occur on fixed dates (e.g., US Memorial Day or July 4th) an observance rule determines when that holiday is observed if it falls on a weekend or some other non-observed day. Defined observance rules are:

Rule Description
nearest_workday move Saturday to Friday and Sunday to Monday
sunday_to_monday move Sunday to following Monday
next_monday_or_tuesday move Saturday to Monday and Sunday/Monday to Tuesday
previous_friday move Saturday and Sunday to previous Friday"
next_monday move Saturday and Sunday to following Monday

An example of how holidays and holiday calendars are defined:

.. ipython:: python

    from pandas.tseries.holiday import (
        Holiday,
        USMemorialDay,
        AbstractHolidayCalendar,
        nearest_workday,
        MO,
    )

    class ExampleCalendar(AbstractHolidayCalendar):
        rules = [
            USMemorialDay,
            Holiday("July 4th", month=7, day=4, observance=nearest_workday),
            Holiday(
                "Columbus Day",
                month=10,
                day=1,
                offset=pd.DateOffset(weekday=MO(2)),
            ),
        ]

    cal = ExampleCalendar()
    cal.holidays(datetime.datetime(2012, 1, 1), datetime.datetime(2012, 12, 31))

hint:weekday=MO(2) is same as 2 * Week(weekday=2)

Using this calendar, creating an index or doing offset arithmetic skips weekends and holidays (i.e., Memorial Day/July 4th). For example, the below defines a custom business day offset using the ExampleCalendar. Like any other offset, it can be used to create a DatetimeIndex or added to datetime or Timestamp objects.

.. ipython:: python

    pd.date_range(
        start="7/1/2012", end="7/10/2012", freq=pd.offsets.CDay(calendar=cal)
    ).to_pydatetime()
    offset = pd.offsets.CustomBusinessDay(calendar=cal)
    datetime.datetime(2012, 5, 25) + offset
    datetime.datetime(2012, 7, 3) + offset
    datetime.datetime(2012, 7, 3) + 2 * offset
    datetime.datetime(2012, 7, 6) + offset

Ranges are defined by the start_date and end_date class attributes of AbstractHolidayCalendar. The defaults are shown below.

.. ipython:: python

    AbstractHolidayCalendar.start_date
    AbstractHolidayCalendar.end_date

These dates can be overwritten by setting the attributes as datetime/Timestamp/string.

.. ipython:: python

    AbstractHolidayCalendar.start_date = datetime.datetime(2012, 1, 1)
    AbstractHolidayCalendar.end_date = datetime.datetime(2012, 12, 31)
    cal.holidays()

Every calendar class is accessible by name using the get_calendar function which returns a holiday class instance. Any imported calendar class will automatically be available by this function. Also, HolidayCalendarFactory provides an easy interface to create calendars that are combinations of calendars or calendars with additional rules.

.. ipython:: python

    from pandas.tseries.holiday import get_calendar, HolidayCalendarFactory, USLaborDay

    cal = get_calendar("ExampleCalendar")
    cal.rules
    new_cal = HolidayCalendarFactory("NewExampleCalendar", cal, USLaborDay)
    new_cal.rules

Time Series-related instance methods

Shifting / lagging

One may want to shift or lag the values in a time series back and forward in time. The method for this is :meth:`~Series.shift`, which is available on all of the pandas objects.

.. ipython:: python

   ts = pd.Series(range(len(rng)), index=rng)
   ts = ts[:5]
   ts.shift(1)

The shift method accepts an freq argument which can accept a DateOffset class or other timedelta-like object or also an :ref:`offset alias <timeseries.offset_aliases>`.

When freq is specified, shift method changes all the dates in the index rather than changing the alignment of the data and the index:

.. ipython:: python

   ts.shift(5, freq="D")
   ts.shift(5, freq=pd.offsets.BDay())
   ts.shift(5, freq="BME")

Note that with when freq is specified, the leading entry is no longer NaN because the data is not being realigned.

Frequency conversion

The primary function for changing frequencies is the :meth:`~Series.asfreq` method. For a DatetimeIndex, this is basically just a thin, but convenient wrapper around :meth:`~Series.reindex` which generates a date_range and calls reindex.

.. ipython:: python

   dr = pd.date_range("1/1/2010", periods=3, freq=3 * pd.offsets.BDay())
   ts = pd.Series(np.random.randn(3), index=dr)
   ts
   ts.asfreq(pd.offsets.BDay())

asfreq provides a further convenience so you can specify an interpolation method for any gaps that may appear after the frequency conversion.

.. ipython:: python

   ts.asfreq(pd.offsets.BDay(), method="pad")

Filling forward / backward

Related to asfreq and reindex is :meth:`~Series.fillna`, which is documented in the :ref:`missing data section <missing_data.fillna>`.

Converting to Python datetimes

DatetimeIndex can be converted to an array of Python native :py:class:`datetime.datetime` objects using the to_pydatetime method.

Resampling

pandas has a simple, powerful, and efficient functionality for performing resampling operations during frequency conversion (e.g., converting secondly data into 5-minutely data). This is extremely common in, but not limited to, financial applications.

:meth:`~Series.resample` is a time-based groupby, followed by a reduction method on each of its groups. See some :ref:`cookbook examples <cookbook.resample>` for some advanced strategies.

The resample() method can be used directly from DataFrameGroupBy objects, see the :ref:`groupby docs <groupby.transform.window_resample>`.

Basics

.. ipython:: python

   rng = pd.date_range("1/1/2012", periods=100, freq="s")

   ts = pd.Series(np.random.randint(0, 500, len(rng)), index=rng)

   ts.resample("5Min").sum()

The resample function is very flexible and allows you to specify many different parameters to control the frequency conversion and resampling operation.

Any built-in method available via :ref:`GroupBy <api.groupby>` is available as a method of the returned object, including sum, mean, std, sem, max, min, median, first, last, ohlc:

.. ipython:: python

   ts.resample("5Min").mean()

   ts.resample("5Min").ohlc()

   ts.resample("5Min").max()


For downsampling, closed can be set to 'left' or 'right' to specify which end of the interval is closed:

.. ipython:: python

   ts.resample("5Min", closed="right").mean()

   ts.resample("5Min", closed="left").mean()

Parameters like label are used to manipulate the resulting labels. label specifies whether the result is labeled with the beginning or the end of the interval.

.. ipython:: python

   ts.resample("5Min").mean()  # by default label='left'

   ts.resample("5Min", label="left").mean()

Warning

The default values for label and closed is 'left' for all frequency offsets except for 'ME', 'Y', 'QE', 'BME', 'BY', 'BQ', and 'W' which all have a default of 'right'.

This might unintendedly lead to looking ahead, where the value for a later time is pulled back to a previous time as in the following example with the :class:`~pandas.tseries.offsets.BusinessDay` frequency:

.. ipython:: python

    s = pd.date_range("2000-01-01", "2000-01-05").to_series()
    s.iloc[2] = pd.NaT
    s.dt.day_name()

    # default: label='left', closed='left'
    s.resample("B").last().dt.day_name()

Notice how the value for Sunday got pulled back to the previous Friday. To get the behavior where the value for Sunday is pushed to Monday, use instead

.. ipython:: python

    s.resample("B", label="right", closed="right").last().dt.day_name()

The axis parameter can be set to 0 or 1 and allows you to resample the specified axis for a DataFrame.

kind can be set to 'timestamp' or 'period' to convert the resulting index to/from timestamp and time span representations. By default resample retains the input representation.

convention can be set to 'start' or 'end' when resampling period data (detail below). It specifies how low frequency periods are converted to higher frequency periods.

Upsampling

For upsampling, you can specify a way to upsample and the limit parameter to interpolate over the gaps that are created:

.. ipython:: python

   # from secondly to every 250 milliseconds

   ts[:2].resample("250ms").asfreq()

   ts[:2].resample("250ms").ffill()

   ts[:2].resample("250ms").ffill(limit=2)

Sparse resampling

Sparse timeseries are the ones where you have a lot fewer points relative to the amount of time you are looking to resample. Naively upsampling a sparse series can potentially generate lots of intermediate values. When you don't want to use a method to fill these values, e.g. fill_method is None, then intermediate values will be filled with NaN.

Since resample is a time-based groupby, the following is a method to efficiently resample only the groups that are not all NaN.

.. ipython:: python

    rng = pd.date_range("2014-1-1", periods=100, freq="D") + pd.Timedelta("1s")
    ts = pd.Series(range(100), index=rng)

If we want to resample to the full range of the series:

.. ipython:: python

    ts.resample("3min").sum()

We can instead only resample those groups where we have points as follows:

.. ipython:: python

    from functools import partial
    from pandas.tseries.frequencies import to_offset

    def round(t, freq):
        # round a Timestamp to a specified freq
        freq = to_offset(freq)
        return pd.Timestamp((t.value // freq.delta.value) * freq.delta.value)

    ts.groupby(partial(round, freq="3min")).sum()

Aggregation

The resample() method returns a pandas.api.typing.Resampler instance. Similar to the :ref:`aggregating API <basics.aggregate>`, :ref:`groupby API <groupby.aggregate>`, and the :ref:`window API <window.overview>`, a Resampler can be selectively resampled.

Resampling a DataFrame, the default will be to act on all columns with the same function.

.. ipython:: python

   df = pd.DataFrame(
       np.random.randn(1000, 3),
       index=pd.date_range("1/1/2012", freq="s", periods=1000),
       columns=["A", "B", "C"],
   )
   r = df.resample("3min")
   r.mean()

We can select a specific column or columns using standard getitem.

.. ipython:: python

   r["A"].mean()

   r[["A", "B"]].mean()

You can pass a list or dict of functions to do aggregation with, outputting a DataFrame:

.. ipython:: python

   r["A"].agg(["sum", "mean", "std"])

On a resampled DataFrame, you can pass a list of functions to apply to each column, which produces an aggregated result with a hierarchical index:

.. ipython:: python

   r.agg(["sum", "mean"])

By passing a dict to aggregate you can apply a different aggregation to the columns of a DataFrame:

.. ipython:: python
   :okexcept:

   r.agg({"A": "sum", "B": lambda x: np.std(x, ddof=1)})

The function names can also be strings. In order for a string to be valid it must be implemented on the resampled object:

.. ipython:: python

   r.agg({"A": "sum", "B": "std"})

Furthermore, you can also specify multiple aggregation functions for each column separately.

.. ipython:: python

   r.agg({"A": ["sum", "std"], "B": ["mean", "std"]})


If a DataFrame does not have a datetimelike index, but instead you want to resample based on datetimelike column in the frame, it can passed to the on keyword.

.. ipython:: python

   df = pd.DataFrame(
       {"date": pd.date_range("2015-01-01", freq="W", periods=5), "a": np.arange(5)},
       index=pd.MultiIndex.from_arrays(
           [[1, 2, 3, 4, 5], pd.date_range("2015-01-01", freq="W", periods=5)],
           names=["v", "d"],
       ),
   )
   df
   df.resample("ME", on="date")[["a"]].sum()

Similarly, if you instead want to resample by a datetimelike level of MultiIndex, its name or location can be passed to the level keyword.

.. ipython:: python

   df.resample("ME", level="d")[["a"]].sum()

Iterating through groups

With the Resampler object in hand, iterating through the grouped data is very natural and functions similarly to :py:func:`itertools.groupby`:

.. ipython:: python

   small = pd.Series(
       range(6),
       index=pd.to_datetime(
           [
               "2017-01-01T00:00:00",
               "2017-01-01T00:30:00",
               "2017-01-01T00:31:00",
               "2017-01-01T01:00:00",
               "2017-01-01T03:00:00",
               "2017-01-01T03:05:00",
           ]
       ),
   )
   resampled = small.resample("h")

   for name, group in resampled:
       print("Group: ", name)
       print("-" * 27)
       print(group, end="\n\n")

See :ref:`groupby.iterating-label` or :class:`Resampler.__iter__` for more.

Use origin or offset to adjust the start of the bins

The bins of the grouping are adjusted based on the beginning of the day of the time series starting point. This works well with frequencies that are multiples of a day (like 30D) or that divide a day evenly (like 90s or 1min). This can create inconsistencies with some frequencies that do not meet this criteria. To change this behavior you can specify a fixed Timestamp with the argument origin.

For example:

.. ipython:: python

    start, end = "2000-10-01 23:30:00", "2000-10-02 00:30:00"
    middle = "2000-10-02 00:00:00"
    rng = pd.date_range(start, end, freq="7min")
    ts = pd.Series(np.arange(len(rng)) * 3, index=rng)
    ts

Here we can see that, when using origin with its default value ('start_day'), the result after '2000-10-02 00:00:00' are not identical depending on the start of time series:

.. ipython:: python

    ts.resample("17min", origin="start_day").sum()
    ts[middle:end].resample("17min", origin="start_day").sum()


Here we can see that, when setting origin to 'epoch', the result after '2000-10-02 00:00:00' are identical depending on the start of time series:

.. ipython:: python

   ts.resample("17min", origin="epoch").sum()
   ts[middle:end].resample("17min", origin="epoch").sum()


If needed you can use a custom timestamp for origin:

.. ipython:: python

   ts.resample("17min", origin="2001-01-01").sum()
   ts[middle:end].resample("17min", origin=pd.Timestamp("2001-01-01")).sum()

If needed you can just adjust the bins with an offset Timedelta that would be added to the default origin. Those two examples are equivalent for this time series:

.. ipython:: python

    ts.resample("17min", origin="start").sum()
    ts.resample("17min", offset="23h30min").sum()


Note the use of 'start' for origin on the last example. In that case, origin will be set to the first value of the timeseries.

Backward resample

.. versionadded:: 1.3.0

Instead of adjusting the beginning of bins, sometimes we need to fix the end of the bins to make a backward resample with a given freq. The backward resample sets closed to 'right' by default since the last value should be considered as the edge point for the last bin.

We can set origin to 'end'. The value for a specific Timestamp index stands for the resample result from the current Timestamp minus freq to the current Timestamp with a right close.

.. ipython:: python

   ts.resample('17min', origin='end').sum()

Besides, in contrast with the 'start_day' option, end_day is supported. This will set the origin as the ceiling midnight of the largest Timestamp.

.. ipython:: python

   ts.resample('17min', origin='end_day').sum()

The above result uses 2000-10-02 00:29:00 as the last bin's right edge since the following computation.

.. ipython:: python

   ceil_mid = rng.max().ceil('D')
   freq = pd.offsets.Minute(17)
   bin_res = ceil_mid - freq * ((ceil_mid - rng.max()) // freq)
   bin_res

Time span representation

Regular intervals of time are represented by Period objects in pandas while sequences of Period objects are collected in a PeriodIndex, which can be created with the convenience function period_range.

Period

A Period represents a span of time (e.g., a day, a month, a quarter, etc). You can specify the span via freq keyword using a frequency alias like below. Because freq represents a span of Period, it cannot be negative like "-3D".

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Period("2012", freq="Y-DEC")

   pd.Period("2012-1-1", freq="D")

   pd.Period("2012-1-1 19:00", freq="h")

   pd.Period("2012-1-1 19:00", freq="5h")

Adding and subtracting integers from periods shifts the period by its own frequency. Arithmetic is not allowed between Period with different freq (span).

.. ipython:: python

   p = pd.Period("2012", freq="Y-DEC")
   p + 1
   p - 3
   p = pd.Period("2012-01", freq="2M")
   p + 2
   p - 1
   p == pd.Period("2012-01", freq="3M")


If Period freq is daily or higher (D, H, T, S, L, U, N), offsets and timedelta-like can be added if the result can have the same freq. Otherwise, ValueError will be raised.

.. ipython:: python

   p = pd.Period("2014-07-01 09:00", freq="h")
   p + pd.offsets.Hour(2)
   p + datetime.timedelta(minutes=120)
   p + np.timedelta64(7200, "s")

.. ipython:: python
   :okexcept:

   p + pd.offsets.Minute(5)


If Period has other frequencies, only the same offsets can be added. Otherwise, ValueError will be raised.

.. ipython:: python

   p = pd.Period("2014-07", freq="M")
   p + pd.offsets.MonthEnd(3)

.. ipython:: python
   :okexcept:

   p + pd.offsets.MonthBegin(3)


Taking the difference of Period instances with the same frequency will return the number of frequency units between them:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Period("2012", freq="Y-DEC") - pd.Period("2002", freq="Y-DEC")

PeriodIndex and period_range

Regular sequences of Period objects can be collected in a PeriodIndex, which can be constructed using the period_range convenience function:

.. ipython:: python

   prng = pd.period_range("1/1/2011", "1/1/2012", freq="M")
   prng

The PeriodIndex constructor can also be used directly:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.PeriodIndex(["2011-1", "2011-2", "2011-3"], freq="M")

Passing multiplied frequency outputs a sequence of Period which has multiplied span.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.period_range(start="2014-01", freq="3M", periods=4)

If start or end are Period objects, they will be used as anchor endpoints for a PeriodIndex with frequency matching that of the PeriodIndex constructor.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.period_range(
       start=pd.Period("2017Q1", freq="Q"), end=pd.Period("2017Q2", freq="Q"), freq="M"
   )

Just like DatetimeIndex, a PeriodIndex can also be used to index pandas objects:

.. ipython:: python

   ps = pd.Series(np.random.randn(len(prng)), prng)
   ps

PeriodIndex supports addition and subtraction with the same rule as Period.

.. ipython:: python

   idx = pd.period_range("2014-07-01 09:00", periods=5, freq="h")
   idx
   idx + pd.offsets.Hour(2)

   idx = pd.period_range("2014-07", periods=5, freq="M")
   idx
   idx + pd.offsets.MonthEnd(3)

PeriodIndex has its own dtype named period, refer to :ref:`Period Dtypes <timeseries.period_dtype>`.

Period dtypes

PeriodIndex has a custom period dtype. This is a pandas extension dtype similar to the :ref:`timezone aware dtype <timeseries.timezone_series>` (datetime64[ns, tz]).

The period dtype holds the freq attribute and is represented with period[freq] like period[D] or period[M], using :ref:`frequency strings <timeseries.period_aliases>`.

.. ipython:: python

   pi = pd.period_range("2016-01-01", periods=3, freq="M")
   pi
   pi.dtype

The period dtype can be used in .astype(...). It allows one to change the freq of a PeriodIndex like .asfreq() and convert a DatetimeIndex to PeriodIndex like to_period():

.. ipython:: python

   # change monthly freq to daily freq
   pi.astype("period[D]")

   # convert to DatetimeIndex
   pi.astype("datetime64[ns]")

   # convert to PeriodIndex
   dti = pd.date_range("2011-01-01", freq="ME", periods=3)
   dti
   dti.astype("period[M]")

PeriodIndex partial string indexing

PeriodIndex now supports partial string slicing with non-monotonic indexes.

You can pass in dates and strings to Series and DataFrame with PeriodIndex, in the same manner as DatetimeIndex. For details, refer to :ref:`DatetimeIndex Partial String Indexing <timeseries.partialindexing>`.

.. ipython:: python

   ps["2011-01"]

   ps[datetime.datetime(2011, 12, 25):]

   ps["10/31/2011":"12/31/2011"]

Passing a string representing a lower frequency than PeriodIndex returns partial sliced data.

.. ipython:: python

   ps["2011"]

   dfp = pd.DataFrame(
       np.random.randn(600, 1),
       columns=["A"],
       index=pd.period_range("2013-01-01 9:00", periods=600, freq="min"),
   )
   dfp
   dfp.loc["2013-01-01 10h"]

As with DatetimeIndex, the endpoints will be included in the result. The example below slices data starting from 10:00 to 11:59.

.. ipython:: python

   dfp["2013-01-01 10h":"2013-01-01 11h"]


Frequency conversion and resampling with PeriodIndex

The frequency of Period and PeriodIndex can be converted via the asfreq method. Let's start with the fiscal year 2011, ending in December:

.. ipython:: python

   p = pd.Period("2011", freq="Y-DEC")
   p

We can convert it to a monthly frequency. Using the how parameter, we can specify whether to return the starting or ending month:

.. ipython:: python

   p.asfreq("M", how="start")

   p.asfreq("M", how="end")

The shorthands 's' and 'e' are provided for convenience:

.. ipython:: python

   p.asfreq("M", "s")
   p.asfreq("M", "e")

Converting to a "super-period" (e.g., annual frequency is a super-period of quarterly frequency) automatically returns the super-period that includes the input period:

.. ipython:: python

   p = pd.Period("2011-12", freq="M")

   p.asfreq("Y-NOV")

Note that since we converted to an annual frequency that ends the year in November, the monthly period of December 2011 is actually in the 2012 Y-NOV period.

Period conversions with anchored frequencies are particularly useful for working with various quarterly data common to economics, business, and other fields. Many organizations define quarters relative to the month in which their fiscal year starts and ends. Thus, first quarter of 2011 could start in 2010 or a few months into 2011. Via anchored frequencies, pandas works for all quarterly frequencies Q-JAN through Q-DEC.

Q-DEC define regular calendar quarters:

.. ipython:: python

   p = pd.Period("2012Q1", freq="Q-DEC")

   p.asfreq("D", "s")

   p.asfreq("D", "e")

Q-MAR defines fiscal year end in March:

.. ipython:: python

   p = pd.Period("2011Q4", freq="Q-MAR")

   p.asfreq("D", "s")

   p.asfreq("D", "e")

Converting between representations

Timestamped data can be converted to PeriodIndex-ed data using to_period and vice-versa using to_timestamp:

.. ipython:: python

   rng = pd.date_range("1/1/2012", periods=5, freq="ME")

   ts = pd.Series(np.random.randn(len(rng)), index=rng)

   ts

   ps = ts.to_period()

   ps

   ps.to_timestamp()

Remember that 's' and 'e' can be used to return the timestamps at the start or end of the period:

.. ipython:: python

   ps.to_timestamp("D", how="s")

Converting between period and timestamp enables some convenient arithmetic functions to be used. In the following example, we convert a quarterly frequency with year ending in November to 9am of the end of the month following the quarter end:

.. ipython:: python

   prng = pd.period_range("1990Q1", "2000Q4", freq="Q-NOV")

   ts = pd.Series(np.random.randn(len(prng)), prng)

   ts.index = (prng.asfreq("M", "e") + 1).asfreq("h", "s") + 9

   ts.head()

Representing out-of-bounds spans

If you have data that is outside of the Timestamp bounds, see :ref:`Timestamp limitations <timeseries.timestamp-limits>`, then you can use a PeriodIndex and/or Series of Periods to do computations.

.. ipython:: python

   span = pd.period_range("1215-01-01", "1381-01-01", freq="D")
   span

To convert from an int64 based YYYYMMDD representation.

.. ipython:: python

   s = pd.Series([20121231, 20141130, 99991231])
   s

   def conv(x):
       return pd.Period(year=x // 10000, month=x // 100 % 100, day=x % 100, freq="D")

   s.apply(conv)
   s.apply(conv)[2]

These can easily be converted to a PeriodIndex:

.. ipython:: python

   span = pd.PeriodIndex(s.apply(conv))
   span

Time zone handling

pandas provides rich support for working with timestamps in different time zones using the pytz and dateutil libraries or :class:`datetime.timezone` objects from the standard library.

Working with time zones

By default, pandas objects are time zone unaware:

.. ipython:: python

   rng = pd.date_range("3/6/2012 00:00", periods=15, freq="D")
   rng.tz is None

To localize these dates to a time zone (assign a particular time zone to a naive date), you can use the tz_localize method or the tz keyword argument in :func:`date_range`, :class:`Timestamp`, or :class:`DatetimeIndex`. You can either pass pytz or dateutil time zone objects or Olson time zone database strings. Olson time zone strings will return pytz time zone objects by default. To return dateutil time zone objects, append dateutil/ before the string.

  • In pytz you can find a list of common (and less common) time zones using from pytz import common_timezones, all_timezones.
  • dateutil uses the OS time zones so there isn't a fixed list available. For common zones, the names are the same as pytz.
.. ipython:: python

   import dateutil

   # pytz
   rng_pytz = pd.date_range("3/6/2012 00:00", periods=3, freq="D", tz="Europe/London")
   rng_pytz.tz

   # dateutil
   rng_dateutil = pd.date_range("3/6/2012 00:00", periods=3, freq="D")
   rng_dateutil = rng_dateutil.tz_localize("dateutil/Europe/London")
   rng_dateutil.tz

   # dateutil - utc special case
   rng_utc = pd.date_range(
       "3/6/2012 00:00",
       periods=3,
       freq="D",
       tz=dateutil.tz.tzutc(),
   )
   rng_utc.tz

.. ipython:: python

   # datetime.timezone
   rng_utc = pd.date_range(
       "3/6/2012 00:00",
       periods=3,
       freq="D",
       tz=datetime.timezone.utc,
   )
   rng_utc.tz

Note that the UTC time zone is a special case in dateutil and should be constructed explicitly as an instance of dateutil.tz.tzutc. You can also construct other time zones objects explicitly first.

.. ipython:: python

   import pytz

   # pytz
   tz_pytz = pytz.timezone("Europe/London")
   rng_pytz = pd.date_range("3/6/2012 00:00", periods=3, freq="D")
   rng_pytz = rng_pytz.tz_localize(tz_pytz)
   rng_pytz.tz == tz_pytz

   # dateutil
   tz_dateutil = dateutil.tz.gettz("Europe/London")
   rng_dateutil = pd.date_range("3/6/2012 00:00", periods=3, freq="D", tz=tz_dateutil)
   rng_dateutil.tz == tz_dateutil

To convert a time zone aware pandas object from one time zone to another, you can use the tz_convert method.

.. ipython:: python

   rng_pytz.tz_convert("US/Eastern")

Note

When using pytz time zones, :class:`DatetimeIndex` will construct a different time zone object than a :class:`Timestamp` for the same time zone input. A :class:`DatetimeIndex` can hold a collection of :class:`Timestamp` objects that may have different UTC offsets and cannot be succinctly represented by one pytz time zone instance while one :class:`Timestamp` represents one point in time with a specific UTC offset.

.. ipython:: python

   dti = pd.date_range("2019-01-01", periods=3, freq="D", tz="US/Pacific")
   dti.tz
   ts = pd.Timestamp("2019-01-01", tz="US/Pacific")
   ts.tz

Warning

Be wary of conversions between libraries. For some time zones, pytz and dateutil have different definitions of the zone. This is more of a problem for unusual time zones than for 'standard' zones like US/Eastern.

Warning

Be aware that a time zone definition across versions of time zone libraries may not be considered equal. This may cause problems when working with stored data that is localized using one version and operated on with a different version. See :ref:`here<io.hdf5-notes>` for how to handle such a situation.

Warning

For pytz time zones, it is incorrect to pass a time zone object directly into the datetime.datetime constructor (e.g., datetime.datetime(2011, 1, 1, tzinfo=pytz.timezone('US/Eastern')). Instead, the datetime needs to be localized using the localize method on the pytz time zone object.

Warning

Be aware that for times in the future, correct conversion between time zones (and UTC) cannot be guaranteed by any time zone library because a timezone's offset from UTC may be changed by the respective government.

Warning

If you are using dates beyond 2038-01-18, due to current deficiencies in the underlying libraries caused by the year 2038 problem, daylight saving time (DST) adjustments to timezone aware dates will not be applied. If and when the underlying libraries are fixed, the DST transitions will be applied.

For example, for two dates that are in British Summer Time (and so would normally be GMT+1), both the following asserts evaluate as true:

.. ipython:: python

   d_2037 = "2037-03-31T010101"
   d_2038 = "2038-03-31T010101"
   DST = "Europe/London"
   assert pd.Timestamp(d_2037, tz=DST) != pd.Timestamp(d_2037, tz="GMT")
   assert pd.Timestamp(d_2038, tz=DST) == pd.Timestamp(d_2038, tz="GMT")

Under the hood, all timestamps are stored in UTC. Values from a time zone aware :class:`DatetimeIndex` or :class:`Timestamp` will have their fields (day, hour, minute, etc.) localized to the time zone. However, timestamps with the same UTC value are still considered to be equal even if they are in different time zones:

.. ipython:: python

   rng_eastern = rng_utc.tz_convert("US/Eastern")
   rng_berlin = rng_utc.tz_convert("Europe/Berlin")

   rng_eastern[2]
   rng_berlin[2]
   rng_eastern[2] == rng_berlin[2]

Operations between :class:`Series` in different time zones will yield UTC :class:`Series`, aligning the data on the UTC timestamps:

.. ipython:: python

   ts_utc = pd.Series(range(3), pd.date_range("20130101", periods=3, tz="UTC"))
   eastern = ts_utc.tz_convert("US/Eastern")
   berlin = ts_utc.tz_convert("Europe/Berlin")
   result = eastern + berlin
   result
   result.index

To remove time zone information, use tz_localize(None) or tz_convert(None). tz_localize(None) will remove the time zone yielding the local time representation. tz_convert(None) will remove the time zone after converting to UTC time.

.. ipython:: python

   didx = pd.date_range(start="2014-08-01 09:00", freq="h", periods=3, tz="US/Eastern")
   didx
   didx.tz_localize(None)
   didx.tz_convert(None)

   # tz_convert(None) is identical to tz_convert('UTC').tz_localize(None)
   didx.tz_convert("UTC").tz_localize(None)

Fold

For ambiguous times, pandas supports explicitly specifying the keyword-only fold argument. Due to daylight saving time, one wall clock time can occur twice when shifting from summer to winter time; fold describes whether the datetime-like corresponds to the first (0) or the second time (1) the wall clock hits the ambiguous time. Fold is supported only for constructing from naive datetime.datetime (see datetime documentation for details) or from :class:`Timestamp` or for constructing from components (see below). Only dateutil timezones are supported (see dateutil documentation for dateutil methods that deal with ambiguous datetimes) as pytz timezones do not support fold (see pytz documentation for details on how pytz deals with ambiguous datetimes). To localize an ambiguous datetime with pytz, please use :meth:`Timestamp.tz_localize`. In general, we recommend to rely on :meth:`Timestamp.tz_localize` when localizing ambiguous datetimes if you need direct control over how they are handled.

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Timestamp(
       datetime.datetime(2019, 10, 27, 1, 30, 0, 0),
       tz="dateutil/Europe/London",
       fold=0,
   )
   pd.Timestamp(
       year=2019,
       month=10,
       day=27,
       hour=1,
       minute=30,
       tz="dateutil/Europe/London",
       fold=1,
   )

Ambiguous times when localizing

tz_localize may not be able to determine the UTC offset of a timestamp because daylight savings time (DST) in a local time zone causes some times to occur twice within one day ("clocks fall back"). The following options are available:

  • 'raise': Raises a pytz.AmbiguousTimeError (the default behavior)
  • 'infer': Attempt to determine the correct offset base on the monotonicity of the timestamps
  • 'NaT': Replaces ambiguous times with NaT
  • bool: True represents a DST time, False represents non-DST time. An array-like of bool values is supported for a sequence of times.
.. ipython:: python

   rng_hourly = pd.DatetimeIndex(
       ["11/06/2011 00:00", "11/06/2011 01:00", "11/06/2011 01:00", "11/06/2011 02:00"]
   )

This will fail as there are ambiguous times ('11/06/2011 01:00')

.. ipython:: python
   :okexcept:

   rng_hourly.tz_localize('US/Eastern')

Handle these ambiguous times by specifying the following.

.. ipython:: python

   rng_hourly.tz_localize("US/Eastern", ambiguous="infer")
   rng_hourly.tz_localize("US/Eastern", ambiguous="NaT")
   rng_hourly.tz_localize("US/Eastern", ambiguous=[True, True, False, False])

Nonexistent times when localizing

A DST transition may also shift the local time ahead by 1 hour creating nonexistent local times ("clocks spring forward"). The behavior of localizing a timeseries with nonexistent times can be controlled by the nonexistent argument. The following options are available:

  • 'raise': Raises a pytz.NonExistentTimeError (the default behavior)
  • 'NaT': Replaces nonexistent times with NaT
  • 'shift_forward': Shifts nonexistent times forward to the closest real time
  • 'shift_backward': Shifts nonexistent times backward to the closest real time
  • timedelta object: Shifts nonexistent times by the timedelta duration
.. ipython:: python

    dti = pd.date_range(start="2015-03-29 02:30:00", periods=3, freq="h")
    # 2:30 is a nonexistent time

Localization of nonexistent times will raise an error by default.

.. ipython:: python
   :okexcept:

   dti.tz_localize('Europe/Warsaw')

Transform nonexistent times to NaT or shift the times.

.. ipython:: python

    dti
    dti.tz_localize("Europe/Warsaw", nonexistent="shift_forward")
    dti.tz_localize("Europe/Warsaw", nonexistent="shift_backward")
    dti.tz_localize("Europe/Warsaw", nonexistent=pd.Timedelta(1, unit="h"))
    dti.tz_localize("Europe/Warsaw", nonexistent="NaT")


Time zone Series operations

A :class:`Series` with time zone naive values is represented with a dtype of datetime64[ns].

.. ipython:: python

   s_naive = pd.Series(pd.date_range("20130101", periods=3))
   s_naive

A :class:`Series` with a time zone aware values is represented with a dtype of datetime64[ns, tz] where tz is the time zone

.. ipython:: python

   s_aware = pd.Series(pd.date_range("20130101", periods=3, tz="US/Eastern"))
   s_aware

Both of these :class:`Series` time zone information can be manipulated via the .dt accessor, see :ref:`the dt accessor section <basics.dt_accessors>`.

For example, to localize and convert a naive stamp to time zone aware.

.. ipython:: python

   s_naive.dt.tz_localize("UTC").dt.tz_convert("US/Eastern")

Time zone information can also be manipulated using the astype method. This method can convert between different timezone-aware dtypes.

.. ipython:: python

   # convert to a new time zone
   s_aware.astype("datetime64[ns, CET]")

Note

Using :meth:`Series.to_numpy` on a Series, returns a NumPy array of the data. NumPy does not currently support time zones (even though it is printing in the local time zone!), therefore an object array of Timestamps is returned for time zone aware data:

.. ipython:: python

   s_naive.to_numpy()
   s_aware.to_numpy()

By converting to an object array of Timestamps, it preserves the time zone information. For example, when converting back to a Series:

.. ipython:: python

   pd.Series(s_aware.to_numpy())

However, if you want an actual NumPy datetime64[ns] array (with the values converted to UTC) instead of an array of objects, you can specify the dtype argument:

.. ipython:: python

   s_aware.to_numpy(dtype="datetime64[ns]")