Format Date

Write a function that reformats a date string using the datetime module.

format_date(date_str)

date_str is in "YYYY-MM-DD" format. Return it as "Month D, YYYY" — the full month name, and the day without a leading zero.

Examples

format_date("2024-03-05")   // → "March 5, 2024"
format_date("2000-01-01")   // → "January 1, 2000"
format_date("1999-12-25")   // → "December 25, 1999"

Walkthrough

Thinking it through

from datetime import datetime


def format_date(date_str):
    d = datetime.strptime(date_str, "%Y-%m-%d")
    return f"{d.strftime('%B')} {d.day}, {d.year}"

datetime.strptime(date_str, "%Y-%m-%d") parses the input according to the format you specify: %Y matches a 4-digit year, %m a zero-padded month number, %d a zero-padded day number. The result is a datetime object with .year, .month, and .day attributes already broken out as plain integers.

You might expect to use strftime for the whole output too — and d.strftime("%B %d, %Y") gets close — but %d always zero-pads the day ("05" instead of "5"), which doesn't match what's required here. That's why the solution mixes approaches: d.strftime('%B') for just the month name (there's no non-padded day code in strftime), combined with d.day (the plain integer attribute, no padding) and d.year directly in an f-string.

This is a common realization once you start using a library seriously: the built-in formatting function doesn't always match your exact desired output, and reaching for the object's raw attributes (.day, .year) alongside a partial format string is often the cleanest fix.

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