strptime

strptime(string[, format]) -> struct_time

Parse a string to a time tuple according to a format specification.
See the library reference manual for formatting codes (same as
strftime()).

Commonly used format codes:

%Y  Year with century as a decimal number.
%m  Month as a decimal number [01,12].
%d  Day of the month as a decimal number [01,31].
%H  Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number [00,23].
%M  Minute as a decimal number [00,59].
%S  Second as a decimal number [00,61].
%z  Time zone offset from UTC.
%a  Locale's abbreviated weekday name.
%A  Locale's full weekday name.
%b  Locale's abbreviated month name.
%B  Locale's full month name.
%c  Locale's appropriate date and time representation.
%I  Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number [01,12].
%p  Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM.

Other codes may be available on your platform.  See documentation for
the C library strftime function.