Answer by Mark for How can I overcome "datetime.datetime not JSON serializable"?

Generally there are several ways to serialize datetimes, like:

1. ISO 8601 string, short and can include timezone info, e.g., jgbarah's answer
2. Timestamp (timezone data is lost), e.g. JayTaylor's answer
3. Dictionary of properties (including timezone).

If you're okay with the last way, the json_tricks package handles dates, times and datetimes including timezones.

from datetime import datetimefrom json_tricks import dumpsfoo = {'title': 'String', 'datetime': datetime(2012, 8, 8, 21, 46, 24, 862000)}dumps(foo)

which gives:

{"title": "String", "datetime": {"__datetime__": null, "year": 2012, "month": 8, "day": 8, "hour": 21, "minute": 46, "second": 24, "microsecond": 862000}}

So all you need to do is

`pip install json_tricks`

and then import from json_tricks instead of json.

The advantage of not storing it as a single string, int or float comes when decoding: if you encounter just a string or especially int or float, you need to know something about the data to know if it's a datetime. As a dict, you can store metadata so it can be decoded automatically, which is what json_tricks does for you. It's also easily editable for humans.

Disclaimer: it's made by me. Because I had the same problem.