Can't copy field to another: 'Empty value for Objectid = 0'

Question

I tried to copy a field with dates that had type 'TEXT' to a new column of type 'DATE' because it is not possible to change the initial type of the original field.

arcpy.CalculateField_management(r'C:UsersUSERDesktopDeuv.shp','DC_DATE','DC_DATE1')

The initial field has all rows with data but it gives this error:

'Empty value for Objectid = 0'

And it can't copy anything to the other field.

MacroZED · Answer

You need to convert your text into a datetime format. So using the datetime.strptime method, you have to decipher what your text date looks like, and convert that into a datetime format.

Using the UpdateCursor, you can search for your string date, convert that into a datetime object, then update the new field with the correct date object.

Please see link for more information on the DateTime python module.

For example:

import datetime

string_date = "23/11/18 12:30"

string_date_into_datetime = datetime.datetime.strptime(string_date, "%d/%m/%y %H:%M")

print string_date_into_datetime

Can't copy field to another: 'Empty value for Objectid = 0'

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