Convert date to datetime in Python

You can use datetime.combine(date, time); for the time, you create a datetime.time object initialized to midnight.

from datetime import date
from datetime import datetime

dt = datetime.combine(date.today(), datetime.min.time())

There are several ways, although I do believe the one you mention (and dislike) is the most readable one.

>>> import datetime
>>> t=datetime.date.today()
>>> datetime.datetime.fromordinal(t.toordinal())
datetime.datetime(2009, 12, 20, 0, 0)

>>> datetime.datetime(t.year, t.month, t.day)
datetime.datetime(2009, 12, 20, 0, 0)

>>> datetime.datetime(*t.timetuple()[:-4])
datetime.datetime(2009, 12, 20, 0, 0)

and so forth -- but basically they all hinge on appropriately extracting info from the date object and ploughing it back into the suitable ctor or classfunction for datetime.

The accepted answer is correct, but I would prefer to avoid using datetime.min.time() because it's not obvious to me exactly what it does. If it's obvious to you, then more power to you. I also feel the same way about the timetuple method and the reliance on the ordering.

In my opinion, the most readable, explicit way of doing this without relying on the reader to be very familiar with the datetime module API is:

from datetime import date, datetime
today = date.today()
today_with_time = datetime(
    year=today.year, 
    month=today.month,
    day=today.day,
)

That's my take on "explicit is better than implicit."

You can use the date.timetuple() method and unpack operator *.

args = d.timetuple()[:6]
datetime.datetime(*args)