datetime.datetime.min.strftime('%Y') not working

[filipzyzniewski]

BPO	19162
Nosy	@bitdancer
Superseder	bpo-1777412: datetime.strftime dislikes years before 1900

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2013-10-04.14:02:48.849>
created_at = <Date 2013-10-04.11:00:07.361>
labels = ['type-bug', 'library']
title = "datetime.datetime.min.strftime('%Y') not working"
updated_at = <Date 2013-10-04.14:02:48.847>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/filipzyzniewski'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2013-10-04.14:02:48.847>
actor = 'r.david.murray'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2013-10-04.14:02:48.849>
closer = 'r.david.murray'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2013-10-04.11:00:07.361>
creator = 'filip.zyzniewski'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 19162
keywords = []
message_count = 3.0
messages = ['198941', '198944', '198951']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['r.david.murray', 'filip.zyzniewski', 'krzaq']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'duplicate'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = '1777412'
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue19162'
versions = ['Python 2.7', 'Python 3.2']

[filipzyzniewski]

The datetime class provides a min datetime object which is not formattable:

on Python 2:

$ python
Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2013, 05:13:16) 
[GCC 4.7.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import datetime
>>> datetime.datetime.min.strftime('%Y')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: year=1 is before 1900; the datetime strftime() methods require year >= 1900
>>> 

and on Python 3:

$ python3
Python 3.2.3 (default, Apr 10 2013, 05:07:54) 
[GCC 4.7.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import datetime
>>> datetime.datetime.min.strftime('%Y')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: year=1 is before 1000; the datetime strftime() methods require year >= 1000
>>>

It seems to me that either datetime.datetime.min.year should be increased to 1900/1000 or strftime should be able to format year=1 - it is strange that the API doesn't support its own constants.

[krzaq]

works correctly on python3.3:
Python 3.3.2 (default, Oct  4 2013, 12:21:07)
[GCC 4.2.1 20070831 patched [FreeBSD]] on freebsd9
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import datetime
>>> datetime.datetime.min.strftime('%Y')
'0001'

issue on 2.7:
Python 2.7.5 (default, Sep 17 2013, 12:11:31)
[GCC 4.2.1 20070831 patched [FreeBSD]] on freebsd9
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import datetime
>>> datetime.datetime.min.strftime('%Y')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: year=1 is before 1900; the datetime strftime() methods require year >= 1900

[bitdancer]

Indeed, this is already fixed. This issue is a duplicate of bpo-1777412. The bug will not be fixed in earlier versions for the reasons discussed in that issue.