---
title: Converting Excel date serial numbers to Python datetime format
layout: post
image: 
    feature: geek.png
---
Excel stores dates in a very odd way: a serial number of days since 1900.

To convert an Excel datestamp to a Python datetime object, you can use this function:

	def date_serial_number(serial_number: int) -> datetime:
	    """
	    Convert an Excel serial number to a Python datetime object
	    :param serial_number: the date serial number
	    :return: a datetime object
	    """
	    # Excel stores dates as "number of days since 1900"
	    import datetime as dt

	    delta = dt.datetime(1899, 12, 30) + dt.timedelta(days=serial_number)
	    return delta

Hope this helps someone.