title: Convert string to NumPy datetime64 dtype
body: <p>I program gets a string of current time every minute as <code>date = '201711081750'</code></p>
  
  <p>I want to store these strings as np.datetime64 into an array.</p>
  
  <p>I think I could convert this kind of strings as </p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; date = '201711081750'
  
  &gt;&gt;&gt; np.datetime64( date[:4] +'-'+date[4:6]+'-'+date[6:8]+' ' +date[8:10]+':'+date[10:]  , 'm' )
  numpy.datetime64('2017-11-08T17:50')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But it looks complicated and I think it might engender errors later.</p>
  
  <p>Are there simpler ways to do this?</p>