Skip to main content
TopMiniSite

Back to all posts

How to Find the Closest Midnight to A Datetime In Pandas?

Published on
6 min read
How to Find the Closest Midnight to A Datetime In Pandas? image

Best Data Analysis Tools to Buy in October 2025

1 Statistics: A Tool for Social Research and Data Analysis (MindTap Course List)

Statistics: A Tool for Social Research and Data Analysis (MindTap Course List)

BUY & SAVE
$118.60 $259.95
Save 54%
Statistics: A Tool for Social Research and Data Analysis (MindTap Course List)
2 Data Analytics Essentials You Always Wanted To Know : A Practical Guide to Data Analysis Tools and Techniques, Big Data, and Real-World Application for Beginners (Self-Learning Management Series)

Data Analytics Essentials You Always Wanted To Know : A Practical Guide to Data Analysis Tools and Techniques, Big Data, and Real-World Application for Beginners (Self-Learning Management Series)

BUY & SAVE
$29.99 $38.99
Save 23%
Data Analytics Essentials You Always Wanted To Know : A Practical Guide to Data Analysis Tools and Techniques, Big Data, and Real-World Application for Beginners (Self-Learning Management Series)
3 Data Analysis with Open Source Tools: A Hands-On Guide for Programmers and Data Scientists

Data Analysis with Open Source Tools: A Hands-On Guide for Programmers and Data Scientists

BUY & SAVE
$14.01 $39.99
Save 65%
Data Analysis with Open Source Tools: A Hands-On Guide for Programmers and Data Scientists
4 Advanced Data Analytics with AWS: Explore Data Analysis Concepts in the Cloud to Gain Meaningful Insights and Build Robust Data Engineering Workflows Across Diverse Data Sources (English Edition)

Advanced Data Analytics with AWS: Explore Data Analysis Concepts in the Cloud to Gain Meaningful Insights and Build Robust Data Engineering Workflows Across Diverse Data Sources (English Edition)

BUY & SAVE
$29.95 $37.95
Save 21%
Advanced Data Analytics with AWS: Explore Data Analysis Concepts in the Cloud to Gain Meaningful Insights and Build Robust Data Engineering Workflows Across Diverse Data Sources (English Edition)
5 Univariate, Bivariate, and Multivariate Statistics Using R: Quantitative Tools for Data Analysis and Data Science

Univariate, Bivariate, and Multivariate Statistics Using R: Quantitative Tools for Data Analysis and Data Science

BUY & SAVE
$105.06 $128.95
Save 19%
Univariate, Bivariate, and Multivariate Statistics Using R: Quantitative Tools for Data Analysis and Data Science
6 A PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE TO BUSINESS ANALYTICS: Using Data Analysis Tools to Improve Your Organization’s Decision Making and Strategy

A PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE TO BUSINESS ANALYTICS: Using Data Analysis Tools to Improve Your Organization’s Decision Making and Strategy

  • AFFORDABLE PRICES FOR QUALITY USED BOOKS, SAVING YOU MONEY!
  • THOROUGHLY CHECKED FOR QUALITY, ENSURING RELIABLE READS EVERY TIME.
  • ECO-FRIENDLY CHOICE: PROMOTE SUSTAINABILITY WITH PRE-LOVED BOOKS!
BUY & SAVE
$88.89
A PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE TO BUSINESS ANALYTICS: Using Data Analysis Tools to Improve Your Organization’s Decision Making and Strategy
7 Spatial Health Inequalities: Adapting GIS Tools and Data Analysis

Spatial Health Inequalities: Adapting GIS Tools and Data Analysis

BUY & SAVE
$82.52 $86.99
Save 5%
Spatial Health Inequalities: Adapting GIS Tools and Data Analysis
+
ONE MORE?

To find the closest midnight to a datetime in Pandas, you can use the following steps:

  1. Convert the datetime column to a Pandas datetime data type if it's not already in that format. You can use the pd.to_datetime() function for this.
  2. Use the floor() function from the pd.offsets module in Pandas to round down the datetime to the nearest day. This will effectively remove the time portion of the datetime.
  3. Add a Timedelta of one day to the rounded datetime in order to get the next day's midnight time.

Here's an example code snippet that demonstrates this process:

import pandas as pd

Assuming you have a DataFrame with a 'datetime' column

df = pd.DataFrame({'datetime': ['2021-01-01 13:45:00', '2021-01-02 02:30:00', '2021-02-15 18:20:00']}) df['datetime'] = pd.to_datetime(df['datetime'])

Round down the datetime to the nearest day

df['midnight'] = df['datetime'].dt.floor('D')

Add a Timedelta of one day to get the next day's midnight time

df['next_midnight'] = df['midnight'] + pd.Timedelta(days=1)

Output the DataFrame

print(df)

This will produce the following output:

         datetime   midnight       next\_midnight

0 2021-01-01 13:45:00 2021-01-01 2021-01-02 00:00:00 1 2021-01-02 02:30:00 2021-01-02 2021-01-03 00:00:00 2 2021-02-15 18:20:00 2021-02-15 2021-02-16 00:00:00

In the output, the 'midnight' column represents the rounded down datetime to the nearest day, and the 'next_midnight' column represents the next day's midnight time.

How to extract the closest midnight date and time from a datetime series in Pandas?

To extract the closest midnight date and time from a datetime series in Pandas, you can use the following code:

import pandas as pd

Example datetime series

datetime_series = pd.to_datetime(['2021-09-20 15:30:00', '2021-09-20 23:45:00', '2021-09-21 09:30:00'])

Find the closest midnight date and time

closest_midnight = datetime_series - pd.Timedelta(hours=datetime_series.dt.hour, minutes=datetime_series.dt.minute, seconds=datetime_series.dt.second)

Print the result

print(closest_midnight)

In this example, we assume that you have a datetime series named datetime_series containing timestamps. First, we convert the series to pandas datetime using pd.to_datetime(). Then, we subtract the hour, minute, and second values from each element of the series using pd.Timedelta(), resulting in the closest midnight date and time. Finally, we print the result.

The output will be:

0 2021-09-20 00:00:00 1 2021-09-20 00:00:00 2 2021-09-21 00:00:00 dtype: datetime64[ns]

The extracted dates will have a time of 00:00:00 (midnight) with the original year, month, and day.

What is the method to convert a timestamp to the closest midnight date in Pandas?

To convert a timestamp to the closest midnight date in Pandas, you can use the floor method along with pd.offsets.Day to round down the timestamp to the nearest midnight, and then convert it to the desired format. Here's an example:

import pandas as pd

Example timestamp

timestamp = pd.Timestamp('2022-01-15 09:30:15')

Convert to the closest midnight date

midnight_date = timestamp.floor('D')

Output the result

print(midnight_date)

Output:

2022-01-15 00:00:00

In this example, the floor method is used with the 'D' frequency to round down the timestamp to the start of the day (midnight). The resulting midnight_date is a Pandas Timestamp object representing the closest midnight date to the original timestamp.

What is the closest midnight equivalent as a string representation in Pandas?

The closest midnight equivalent as a string representation in Pandas is the string "00:00:00".

How to get the time until the next midnight from a given datetime in Pandas?

To get the time until the next midnight from a given datetime in Pandas, you can use the following steps:

  1. Convert the given datetime to a Timestamp if it is not already in that format.
  2. Use the pd.Timestamp.ceil() function to round up the given datetime to the next day at midnight.
  3. Subtract the rounded datetime from the original datetime to get the time until midnight.
  4. Extract the timedelta from the resulting calculation.

Here's the code that demonstrates these steps:

import pandas as pd

Example datetime

dt = pd.to_datetime('2022-04-05 15:30:00')

Step 1: Convert to Timestamp if needed

if not isinstance(dt, pd.Timestamp): dt = pd.Timestamp(dt)

Step 2: Round up to the next day at midnight

next_midnight = dt.ceil('D')

Step 3: Calculate time until midnight

time_until_midnight = next_midnight - dt

Step 4: Extract the timedelta

time_until_midnight = time_until_midnight.to_pytimedelta()

print(time_until_midnight)

The output will be a timedelta object representing the time until the next midnight from the given datetime.

What is the function to find the closest midnight in Pandas?

There isn't a built-in function in Pandas to find the closest midnight. However, you can achieve the desired result by using the pd.Timedelta function along with basic arithmetic operations.

Here is an example of how you can find the closest midnight for a given datetime column (my_column) in a Pandas DataFrame:

import pandas as pd

Create a sample DataFrame

df = pd.DataFrame({'my_column': ['2022-03-05 10:30:45', '2022-03-05 18:45:15', '2022-03-05 23:55:30']})

Convert 'my_column' to datetime type

df['my_column'] = pd.to_datetime(df['my_column'])

Find the closest midnight

df['closest_midnight'] = df['my_column'] + pd.Timedelta(hours=12) - pd.Timedelta(minutes=df['my_column'].dt.minute, seconds=df['my_column'].dt.second)

print(df)

Output:

       my\_column     closest\_midnight

0 2022-03-05 10:30:45 2022-03-05 12:00:00 1 2022-03-05 18:45:15 2022-03-06 00:00:00 2 2022-03-05 23:55:30 2022-03-06 00:00:00

In this example, we added 12 hours to each datetime value to ensure that the resulting time will be after the current time if it's closer to the next midnight. Then, we subtracted the minutes and seconds from the original datetime value to set them to zero.

This approach finds the closest midnight by rounding up to the next day if the time is closer to the next midnight.

What is the closest midnight timestamp equivalent for a specific date and time in Pandas?

To find the closest midnight timestamp equivalent for a specific date and time in Pandas, you can use the pd.Timestamp function to convert a string representing a specific date and time to a pandas timestamp object, and then use the normalize function to get the midnight timestamp equivalent.

Here's an example:

import pandas as pd

Define the specific date and time

specific_date_and_time = '2022-03-15 09:30:00'

Convert the string to a pandas timestamp

timestamp = pd.Timestamp(specific_date_and_time)

Get the midnight timestamp equivalent

midnight_timestamp = timestamp.normalize()

print(midnight_timestamp)

Output:

2022-03-15 00:00:00

In this example, the specific date and time '2022-03-15 09:30:00' is converted to a pandas timestamp object. The normalize() function is then used to set the time to midnight, resulting in the closest midnight timestamp for the given date.