Python Datetime
Python Dates
A date in Python is not a data type of its own, but we can import a module named datetime
to work with dates as date objects.
Example
Import the datetime module and display the current date:
import datetime
x = datetime.datetime.now()
print(x)
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Date Output
When we execute the code from the example above, the result will be:
The date contains year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and microsecond.
The datetime
module has many methods to return information about the date object.
Here are a few examples, you will learn more about them later in this chapter:
Example
Return the year and name of weekday:
import datetime
x = datetime.datetime.now()
print(x.year)
print(x.strftime("%A"))
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Creating Date Objects
To create a date, we can use the datetime()
class (constructor) of the datetime
module.
The datetime()
class requires three parameters to create a date: year, month, day.
Example
Create a date object:
import datetime
x = datetime.datetime(2020, 5, 17)
print(x)
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The datetime()
class also takes parameters for time and timezone (hour, minute, second, microsecond, tzone), but they are optional, and has a default value of 0
, (None
for timezone).
The strftime() Method
The datetime
object has a method for formatting date objects into readable strings.
The method is called strftime()
, and takes one parameter, format
, to specify the format of the returned string:
Example
Display the name of the month:
import datetime
x = datetime.datetime(2018, 6, 1)
print(x.strftime("%B"))
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A reference of all the legal format codes:
Directive | Description | Example | Try it |
---|---|---|---|
%a | Weekday, short version | Wed | Try it » |
%A | Weekday, full version | Wednesday | Try it » |
%w | Weekday as a number 0–6, 0 is Sunday | 3 | Try it » |
%d | Day of month 01–31 | 31 | Try it » |
%b | Month name, short version | Dec | Try it » |
%B | Month name, full version | December | Try it » |
%m | Month as a number 01–12 | 12 | Try it » |
%y | Year, short version, without century | 18 | Try it » |
%Y | Year, full version | 2018 | Try it » |
%H | Hour 00-23 | 17 | Try it » |
%I | Hour 00-12 | 05 | Try it » |
%p | AM/PM | PM | Try it » |
%M | Minute 00-59 | 41 | Try it » |
%S | Second 00-59 | 08 | Try it » |
%f | Microsecond 000000-999999 | 548513 | Try it » |
%z | UTC offset | +0100 | |
%Z | Timezone | CST | |
%j | Day number of year 001-366 | 365 | Try it » |
%U | Week number of year, Sunday as the first day of the week, 00–53 | 52 | Try it » |
%W | Week number of year, Monday as the first day of the week, 00–53 | 52 | Try it » |
%c | Local version of date and time | Sun Dec 31 17:41:00 2023 | Try it » |
%C | Century | 20 | Try it » |
%x | Local version of date | 12/31/18 | Try it » |
%X | Local version of time | 17:41:00 | Try it » |
%% | A % character | % | Try it » |
%G | ISO 8601 year | 2018 | Try it » |
%u | ISO 8601 weekday (1–7) | 1 | Try it » |
%V | ISO 8601 weeknumber (01-53) | 01 | Try it » |