DateTime Module in Python
Python offers just as much when it comes to time keeping. These functionalities reside in the datetime module.
DateTime in Python
The datetime classes are categorize into 6 main classes.
-
date– An idealized naive date, assuming the current Gregorian calendar always was, and always will be, in effect. Its attributes are year, month and day. -
time– An idealized time, independent of any particular day, assuming that every day has exactly24*60*60seconds. Its attributes are hour, minute, second, microsecond, and tzinfo. -
datetime– Its a combination of date and time along with the attributes year, month, day, hour, minute, second, microsecond, and tzinfo. -
timedelta– A duration expressing the difference between two date, time, or datetime instances to microsecond resolution. -
tzinfo– It provides time zone information objects. -
timezone– A class that implements the tzinfo abstract base class as a fixed offset from the UTC.
DateTime
Syntax
class datetime.date(year, month, day)
The arguments must be in the following range
- MINYEAR <= year <= MAXYEAR
- 1 <= month <= 12
- 1 <= day <= number of days in the given month and year
import datetime from datetime import timedelta time1 = datetime.datetime.now() # Create a datetime-object for right now print("The time is:", time1) # Display current time unformatted print("In other words it's a", time1.strftime("%A in %B")) # Reduce time1.year-variable by ten print("Ten years ago it was", time1.year-10) # Use timedelta to move thirty days into the future futuredate = datetime.timedelta(days=30) futuredate += time1 # Add the current date to futuredate print("Thirty days into the future it'll be", futuredate.strftime("%B"))
The time is: 2021-09-11 08:22:36.067374 In other words it's a Saturday in September Ten years ago it was 2011 Thirty days into the future it'll be October
Common Date Formatting in Python
%A Full day of the week (e.g., Tuesday) %B Full name of month (e.g., April) %a Short day of the week (e.g., Tue) %b Short name of month (e.g., Apr) %Z Time zone (e.g., UTC) %H Hour, 24h system (e.g., 21) %p AM/PM %I Hour, 12h system
from datetime import datetime, timezone, timedelta op1 = datetime.now() # Current Local Time print(op1) tz = timezone(timedelta(hours=7)) # The Current Time in East Zone 7 op2 = datetime.now(tz) print(op2) op3 = datetime.utcnow() # The Current UTC Time print(op3) op4 = op1 + timedelta(days=140, minutes=5) print(op4) # datetime type + timedelta type # Subtraction between datetime, calculation interval (no addition) data = op1 - op3 print(data.days, data.seconds / 60 / 60, data.microseconds) # datetime type-datetime type # datetime type comparison datetime type
# 2021-09-11 09:08:46.169897 # 2021-09-11 16:08:46.169951+07:00 # 2021-09-11 09:08:46.169968 # 2022-01-29 09:13:46.169897 #-1 23.99972222222222 999929
Convert the TimeStamp to a DateTime object
# Convert TIMESTAMP to datetime object without time zone datetime.fromtimestamp(TIMESTAMP, tz=None) # Convert TIMESTAMP to UTC datetime object without time zone datetime.utcfromtimestamp(TIMESTAMP, tz=None)
The datetime object, output time according to the specified format
from datetime import datetime print(datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")) # 2021-09-11 09:27:47 # You can specify the separator as a space, timespec: 3.6+ print(datetime.now().isoformat(sep='T',timespec='auto')) # 2021-09-11T09:28:20.119706
Convert the time in a character format
# 2011-11-11 00:00:00 from datetime import datetime print(datetime.fromisoformat("2011-11-11")) # Supported date and time format: YYYY-MM-DD[*HH[:MM[:SS[.fff[fff]]]][+HH:MM[ :SS[.ffffff]]]]
Acts on a DateTime object and returns a string representing the date and time.
from datetime import datetime print(datetime.now().ctime()) # Sat Sep 11 09:25:25 2021