Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Find centralized, trusted content and collaborate around the technologies you use most.

Teams

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

TypeError: descriptor 'date' for 'datetime.datetime' objects doesn't apply to a 'int' object

I've just encountered this issue, and couldn't find a reasonable answer for it on the front page of Google. It's similar to this question asked in 2011 , but for a newer version of Python, which results in a different error message.

What is causing these TypeError s?

Integers

import datetime
my_date = datetime.datetime.date(2021, 3, 2) 
Results in the error:
TypeError: descriptor 'date' for 'datetime.datetime' objects doesn't apply to a 'int' object
Strings
Similarly, replacing the integers with strings also gives the same error:
import datetime
my_date = datetime.datetime.date("2021", "3", "2") 
Gives:
TypeError: descriptor 'date' for 'datetime.datetime' objects doesn't apply to a 'str' object
Lists
And using a list gives the same error:
import datetime
my_date = datetime.datetime.date([2021, 3, 2]) 
Results in:
TypeError: descriptor 'date' for 'datetime.datetime' objects doesn't apply to a 'list' object
Similarly, using from datetime import datetime and datetime.date will result in the following error messages respectively:
TypeError: descriptor 'date' for 'datetime' objects doesn't apply to a 'int' object
TypeError: descriptor 'date' for 'datetime' objects doesn't apply to a 'str' object
TypeError: descriptor 'date' for 'datetime' objects doesn't apply to a 'list' object
                since the datetime.datetime.date() method actually doesn't take any arguments at all, the error message seems confusing indeed
– FObersteiner
                Mar 2, 2021 at 7:59
                @MrFruppes Yeah, that's what threw me. I don't program in Python so often, so that error message pop up didn't really indicate to me that I was trying to call a method on a class which hadn't been instantiated.
– Joundill
                Mar 2, 2021 at 19:36
                "It's similar to this question asked in 2011, but for a newer version of Python, which results in a different error message." That doesn't make it a different problem, and therefore doesn't make it a different question. The answers are the same: the code tries to call an instance method from the class, such that self is wrong. This version is probably better, though, because it's good to keep up to date.
– Karl Knechtel
                Jan 20 at 11:26
                That said, the same problem can be caused by any instance method of any class, and a quick search implies that it is asked a fair bit, with no clear canonical. (This would be it, since it's the most popular by far of the questions showing the exact new error message; but it isn't general enough.)
– Karl Knechtel
                Jan 20 at 11:27
                @KarlKnechtel You're correct that the general case pops up a fair bit, but I think this specific case is one people hit fairly often. 2 years ago I dropped my error message into Google and nothing came up, so I wrote this Q+A.
– Joundill
                Jan 22 at 20:34
The issue is that datetime.datetime.date() is a method on a datetime.datetime object. We were  confusing the datetime module with the datetime.datetime class.
What we're really looking for is the datetime.date() constructor.
        
Thanks for contributing an answer to Stack Overflow!
Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.