title: Is there a wildcard format directive for strptime?
body: <p>I'm using <code>strptime</code> like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import time
  time.strptime("+10:00","+%H:%M")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but "+10:00" could also be "-10:00" (timezone offset from UTC) which would break the above command. I could use</p>
  
  <pre><code>time.strptime("+10:00"[1:],"%H:%M")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but ideally I'd find it more readable to use a wildcard in front of the format code.</p>
  
  <p>Does such a wildcard operator exist for Python's <code>strptime</code> / <code>strftime</code>?</p>