def parse_date_time(val): """always returns seconds in UTC # tests are written like this to make any errors easier to understand >>> parse_date_time('2005-09-11T23:54:10Z') - 1126482850.0 0.0 >>> parse_date_time('2005-09-11T16:54:10-07:00') - 1126482850.0 0.0 >>> parse_date_time('1970-01-01T00:00:01Z') - 1.0 0.0 >>> parse_date_time('1970-01-01T00:00:00Z') - 0.0 0.0 >>> parse_date_time("2005-09-05T10:42:00") - 1125916920.0 0.0 """ if "T" not in val: val += "T00:00:00Z" ymd, time = val.split("T") hms, tz_str = time[0:8], time[8:] if not tz_str or tz_str == "Z": time = time[:-1] tz_offset = 0 else: signed_hrs = int(tz_str[:3]) mins = int(tz_str[4:6]) secs = (sign(signed_hrs) * mins + signed_hrs * 60) * 60 tz_offset = -secs year, month, day = ymd.split("-") hour, minute, second = hms.split(":") t = timegm((int(year), int(month), int(day), int(hour), int(minute), int(second), 0, 0, 0)) t = t + tz_offset return t