In this article, we will learn how to get the current date and time in python. And we will also format the date and time in various formats using the strftime() method.
There are various ways to get the current date and time in python. Here are some examples as follows:
Example 1: In this example, we will use now() method returns output in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS:MS format. And this method belongs to the Datetime Module, so we need to import this module.
# Import Module
import datetime
Current_date_and_time = datetime.datetime.now()
print("\nCurrent Date and Time: ",Current_date_and_time)
# Output ==> Current Date and Time: 2020-03-29 16:05:44.405009
Example 2: In this example, we will use date.today() method for which we need to import date module from datetime module to get the current date.
#Import Module
from datetime import date
Current_date_and_time = date.today()
print("\nToday's Date: ", Current_date_and_time)
# Output ==> Today's Date: 2020-03-29
Example 3: In this example, we used strftime() to create a string representing date and time in another format. Here are some examples of Formatted Date and Time as Follows:
# Import module
import datetime
now = datetime.datetime.now()
print
print ("\nCurrent Date and Time using str method of datetime object: ",str(now))
# Output ==> Current date and time using str method of datetime object: 2020-03-29 15:40:54.501845
print ("\nCurrent Date and Time: ",now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"))
# Output ==> Current Date and Time: 2020-03-29 16:05:44
print ("\nCurrent Date: ",now.strftime("%Y/%m/%d"))
# Output ==> Current Date: 2020/03/29
print ("\nCurrent Time in 24hour format: ",now.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))
# Output ==> Current Time in 24hour format: 16:05:44
print ("\nCurrent Time in 12hour format: ",now.strftime("%I:%M:%S %p"))
# Output ==> Current Time in 12hour format: 04:05:44 PM
print ("\nCurrent Date format(dayname, month name day, year): ",now.strftime("%a, %b %d, %Y"))
# Output ==> Current Date format(dayname, month name day, year): Sun, Mar 29, 2020
print ("\nCurrent date and time using strftime:",now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"))
# Output ==> Current date and time using strftime: 2020-03-29 16:05
print ("\nCurrent date and time using isoformat:", now.isoformat())
# Output ==> Current date and time using isoformat: 2020-03-29T16:05:44.405009
print ("\nCurrent date and time using instance attributes:")
print ("\nCurrent year: ", now.year)
# Output ==> Current year: 2020
print ("\nCurrent month: ", now.month)
#Output ==> Current month: 3
print ("\nCurrent day: ", now.day)
# Output ==> Current day: 29
print ("\nCurrent hour: ", now.hour)
# Output ==> Current hour: 16
print ("\nCurrent minute: ", now.minute)
# Output ==> Current minute: 5
print ("\nCurrent second: ", now.second)
# Output ==> Current second: 44
print ("\nCurrent microsecond: ", now.microsecond)
# Output ==> Current microsecond: 405009
Below is the list of directives that can be used to format the date and time output in Python.
|
Directive |
Description |
Example |
|
%a |
Weekday, short version |
Wed |
|
%A |
Weekday, full version |
Wednesday |
|
%w |
Weekday as a number 0-6, 0 is Sunday |
3 |
|
%d |
Day of month 01-31 |
31 |
|
%b |
Month name, short version |
Dec |
|
%B |
Month name, full version |
December |
|
%m |
Month as a number 01-12 |
12 |
|
%y |
Year, short version, without century |
18 |
|
%Y |
Year, full version |
2018 |
|
%H |
Hour 00-23 |
17 |
|
%I |
Hour 00-12 |
05 |
|
%p |
AM/PM |
PM |
|
%M |
Minute 00-59 |
41 |
|
%S |
Second 00-59 |
08 |
|
%f |
Microsecond 000000-999999 |
548513 |
|
%z |
UTC offset |
+0100 |
|
%Z |
Timezone |
CST |
|
%j |
Day number of year 001-366 |
365 |
|
%U |
Week number of year, Sunday as the first day of week, 00-53 |
52 |
|
%W |
Week number of year, Monday as the first day of week, 00-53 |
52 |
|
%c |
Local version of date and time |
Mon Dec 31 17:41:00 2018 |
|
%x |
Local version of date |
12/31/18 |
|
%X |
A local version of time |
17:41:00 |
|
%% |
A % character |
% |
I hope this article will help you to understand how to get the current date and time in python.
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