# ValueError: time data '2024-13-45' does not match format '%Y-%m-%d'

- **ID:** `python/pandas-parse-dates-error`
- **Domain:** python
- **Category:** data_error
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 80%

## Root Cause

Date string is invalid (month/day out of range) or format string incorrect.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| 3.x | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **** (95% success)
   ```
   pd.to_datetime(s, errors='coerce') then inspect s.isna()
   ```
2. **** (85% success)
   ```
   pd.to_datetime(s, format='mixed', dayfirst=False)
   ```

## Dead Ends

- **** — Silently drops data; root data quality issue persists (75% fail)
- **** — Produces wrong dates for valid rows (85% fail)