OSError in creating folder in a user given path PYTHON

Question

I am having a function in which I want to get a path from the user as input and I want to create a folder in the path.

Here is the code snippet:

import os
import datetime

def create_folder(name)
    current_time = datetime.datetime.now()
    folder_name = str(name)+"_("+str(current_time)+")_DATA"
    parent_dir = directory_var.get()        #getting value from tkinter
    print(folder_name)
    print(parent_dir)
    path = os.path.join(parent_dir, folder_name)
    os.mkdir(path)

create_folder("John")

The output with error I am getting is :

John_(2021-08-05 23:43:27.857903)_DATA
C:\app_testing

os.mkdir(path)
OSError: [WinError 123] The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect: 
'C:\\app_testing\\John_(2021-08-05 23:43:27.857903)_DATA'

I need to create a new folder or directory in the given parent_dir with folder name as John_(date)_DATA

Answer 1

I think your problem may be the colons? See Windows file/path naming conventions. Specifically,

Use any character in the current code page for a name, including 
Unicode characters and characters in the extended character set 
(128–255), except for the following:

The following reserved characters:

< (less than)
> (greater than)
: (colon)
" (double quote)
/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)
| (vertical bar or pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)

If you reformat your date to replace the : that could solve your issue.