DOCUMENTATION: name: to_datetime version_added: "2.4" short_description: Get C(datetime) from string description: - Using the input string attempt to create a matching Python C(datetime) object. notes: - For a full list of format codes for working with Python date format strings, see L(the Python documentation, https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-behavior). positional: _input options: _input: description: A string containing date time information. type: str required: true format: description: C(strformat) formatted string that describes the expected format of the input string. type: str EXAMPLES: | # Get total amount of seconds between two dates. Default date format is %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S but you can pass your own format secsdiff: '{{ (("2016-08-14 20:00:12" | to_datetime) - ("2015-12-25" | to_datetime("%Y-%m-%d"))).total_seconds() }}' # Get remaining seconds after delta has been calculated. NOTE: This does NOT convert years, days, hours, and so on to seconds. For that, use total_seconds() {{ (("2016-08-14 20:00:12" | to_datetime) - ("2016-08-14 18:00:00" | to_datetime)).seconds }} # This expression evaluates to "12" and not "132". Delta is 2 hours, 12 seconds # get amount of days between two dates. This returns only number of days and discards remaining hours, minutes, and seconds {{ (("2016-08-14 20:00:12" | to_datetime) - ("2015-12-25" | to_datetime('%Y-%m-%d'))).days }} RETURN: _value: description: C(datetime) object from the represented value. type: raw