gh-140715: Add %t format code support to strptime()

Doc/library/datetime.rst

@@ -2584,8 +2584,9 @@ requires, and these work on all supported platforms.
 |  ``%S``   | Second as a zero-padded        | 00, 01, ..., 59        | \(4), |
 |           | decimal number.                |                        | \(9)  |
 +-----------+--------------------------------+------------------------+-------+
-|  ``%t``   | The tab character              | ``\t``                 | \(0)  |
-|           | (``'\t'``).                    |                        |       |
+|  ``%t``   | The tab character (``'\t'``).  | ``\t``                 |       |
+|           | For :meth:`!strptime`,         |                        |       |
+|           | arbitrary whitespace.          |                        |       |
 +-----------+--------------------------------+------------------------+-------+
 |  ``%T``   | ISO 8601 time format,          | 10:01:59               |       |
 |           | equivalent to ``%H:%M:%S``.    |                        |       |
@@ -2676,7 +2677,8 @@ differences between platforms in handling of unsupported format specifiers.
    ``%:z`` was added for :meth:`~.datetime.strftime`.
 
 .. versionadded:: 3.15
-   ``%:z``, ``%F``, and ``%D`` were added for :meth:`~.datetime.strptime`.
+   ``%D``, ``%F``, ``%t``, and ``:%z`` were added for
+   :meth:`~.datetime.strptime`.
 
 Technical Detail
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lib/_strptime.py

@@ -382,7 +382,9 @@ def __init__(self, locale_time=None):
             'Z': self.__seqToRE((tz for tz_names in self.locale_time.timezone
                                         for tz in tz_names),
                                 'Z'),
-            '%': '%'}
+            't': r'\s+',
+            '%': '%'
+        }
         if self.locale_time.LC_alt_digits is None:
             for d in 'dmyCHIMS':
                 mapping['O' + d] = r'(?P<%s>\d\d|\d| \d)' % d

Lib/test/datetimetester.py

@@ -2207,6 +2207,16 @@ def test_strptime_D_format(self):
             self.theclass.strptime(test_date, "%m/%d/%y")
         )
 
+    def test_strptime_t_format(self):
+        test_year,test_month,test_day = 2026,2,20
+        self.assertEqual(
+            self.theclass.strptime(
+                f'{test_year} \r {test_month}\t \n{test_day}', 
+                "%Y%t%m%t%d"
+            ),
+            self.theclass(test_year,test_month,test_day)
+        )
+
 
 #############################################################################
 # datetime tests

Lib/test/test_strptime.py

@@ -670,6 +670,19 @@ def test_strptime_D_format(self):
             time.strptime(test_date, "%m/%d/%y")
         )
 
+    def test_strptime_t_format(self):
+        test_year,test_month,test_day = 2026,2,20
+        self.assertEqual(
+            time.strptime(
+                f'{test_year} \r {test_month}\t \n{test_day}', 
+                "%Y%t%m%t%d"
+            ),
+            time.strptime(
+                f'{test_year}-{test_month}-{test_day}', 
+                "%Y-%m-%d"
+            )
+        )
+
 class Strptime12AMPMTests(unittest.TestCase):
     """Test a _strptime regression in '%I %p' at 12 noon (12 PM)"""
 

Lib/test/test_time.py

@@ -359,7 +359,7 @@ def test_strptime(self):
         # raising an exception.
         tt = time.gmtime(self.t)
         for directive in ('a', 'A', 'b', 'B', 'c', 'd', 'D', 'F', 'H', 'I',
-                          'j', 'm', 'M', 'p', 'S', 'T',
+                          'j', 'm', 'M', 'p', 'S', 't', 'T',
                           'U', 'w', 'W', 'x', 'X', 'y', 'Y', 'Z', '%'):
             format = '%' + directive
             if directive == 'd':

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-02-17-03-43-07.gh-issue-140715.twmcM_.rst

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add ``'%t'`` support to :meth:`~datetime.datetime.strptime`.