csv to shp python and formating a row

Question

I ́m doing a script to convert csv to shp, but I want to format one of the columns. It ́s a string then I ́d like to format like this

a[8:10]+' / '+a[11:16]+' UTC' being a the value in the column.

this is the code working

#Set up blank lists for data
nombre,codigo,y,x,time=[],[],[],[],[]
#read data from csv file and store in lists
with open('C:/archivecsvToRead.csv', 'r') as csvfile:
 r = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',')
 for i,row in enumerate(r):
 if i > 0: #skip header
 nombre.append(row[0])
 codigo.append(row[1])
 y.append(float(row[2]))
 x.append(float(row[3]))
 time.append(row[4])
#Set up shapefile writer and create empty fields
w = shp.Writer(shp.POINT)
w.autoBalance = 1 #ensures gemoetry and attributes match
w.field('Longitud','F',10,8)
w.field('Latitud','F',10,8)
w.field('Date','D')
w.field('Date / Time','C',50)
w.field('ID','N')
#loop through the data and write the shapefile
for j,k in enumerate(x):
 w.point(k,y[j]) #write the geometry
 w.record(k,y[j],codigo[j], time[j], nombre[j]) #write the attributes
#Save shapefile
w.save(out_file)

How can I format the column time in order to show a[8:10]+' / '+a[11:16]+' UTC' being 'a' the value in the column ?

• artwork21: What shapefile/python module are you using?
• gene: Pyshp but what is a (a[8:10] etc.) ?
• kamome: Hi The column time 4th is like "2014年05月30日T16:32:39+0000" and I´d like to format it as '30 / 16:32 UTC' to show this in the label.
• kamome: I´m using pyshp module
• gene: look for solution below

Answer 1

Hi The column time 4th is like "2014-05-30T16:32:39+0000" and I ́d like to format it as '30 / 16:32 UTC' to show this in the label.

For that you can use Regular expressions: you want to extract '30T16:32' from the string (This isn't geospatial but ...)

The pattern (regular expression to be matched) is [0-9]+T[0-9]+:[0-9]+or \d+T\d+:\d+(search for the regular expression numbers T numbers : numbers)

import re
a = "2014-05-30T16:32:39+0000"
result = re.search(r'\d+T\d+:\d+',a)
print result.group()
'30T16:32'
print result.group()[0:2]
 '30'
print result.group()[3:]
'16:32'
print result.group()[0:2] + ' / ' + result.group()[3:] + 'UTC'
30 / 16:32 UTC

or

result = re.findall(r'\d+T\d+:\d+',a)
print result
['30T16:32']
# split the list
result = result[0].split('T')
print result[0] + ' / ' + result[1] + 'UTC'
30 / 16:32 UTC

or ... (many others pattern matching)

Answer 2

Usually you could use the inbuilt Python datetime library strptime method to read in the date/time string you have, but unfortunately it has issues when reading time zones from strings. Instead you can use the python-dateutil library to parse the date string, and the datetime.strftime library to write it out.

For example:

from datetime import datetime
from dateutil import parser
s = "2014-05-30T16:32:39+0000" #This is an ISO 8601 datetime string
d = parser.parse(s) #recognizes the 8601 format without having to specify it, returns a datetime object
print datetime.strftime(d, "%d / %H:%M %Z") #prints out "30 / 16:32 UTC"

In the long run I think it is better to manipulate the datetime object as it gives a lot more control than using string manipulation.