AttributeError: dataframe object has no attribute to

Dataframe is an object created by the Pandas package when you read any datasets. It makes the manipulation of columns and rows easy. The to_datatime method allows you to convert date and time to datetime type. But you may encounter with error AttributeError: dataframe’ object has no attribute ‘to_datetime’. In this entire post, you will learn how to solve this error quickly.

What causes AttributeError : dataframe’ object has no attribute ‘to_datetime’ error?

The root cause for getting this error is that you must be using the to_datetime method wrongly. Most of cases the developers get this error when you use the to_datetime() method like your_dataframe.to_datetime() or the entire dataframe.

Let’s create a sample dataframe for demonstrating the example. Use the below lines of code to create it.

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
np.random.seed(0)
df = pd.DataFrame({'col1': list('pqrstuv'), 'col2': np.random.choice(10, 7),
                   'col3':["01-01-2022","02-01-2022","03-01-2022","04-01-2022","05-01-2022","06-01-2022","07-01-2022"]})
df

Output

Sample dataframe to convert the third column to datetime

Now you will get the error dataframe’ object has no attribute ‘to_datetime’ when you apply the to_datetime() method on the entire dataframe.

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
np.random.seed(0)
df = pd.DataFrame({'col1': list('pqrstuv'), 'col2': np.random.choice(10, 7),
                   'col3':["01-01-2022","02-01-2022","03-01-2022","04-01-2022",
                           "05-01-2022","06-01-2022","07-01-2022"]})

df.to_datetime(df["col3"],)
df

Output

'DataFrame' object has no attribute 'to_datetime' error — ‘DataFrame’ object has no attribute ‘to_datetime’ error

Solve the dataframe’ object has no attribute ‘to_datetime’

To solve this error you have to use the to_datatime() method on the pandas alias you have used while importing pandas packages like import pandas as pd.

Let’s apply the pd.to_datetime() to the column that contains the date.

Run the below lines of code to convert the date column to datetime object.

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
np.random.seed(0)
df = pd.DataFrame({'col1': list('pqrstuv'), 'col2': np.random.choice(10, 7),
                   'col3':["01-01-2022","02-01-2022","03-01-2022","04-01-2022","05-01-2022","06-01-2022","07-01-2022"]})

pd.to_datetime(df["col3"],)
df

Output

dataframe after converting the third column to datetime

Conclusion

You are getting dataframe’ object has no attribute ‘to_datetime’ as you are using the to_datetime() method using your_dataframe.to_datetime(). It can be easily solved if you use pandas.to_datetime() method on a particular column.

If you are getting this error then the above method will solve the error. To know more about AttributeErrors, please read the below article.