Python Datetime Module

Python Datetime Module in Python provides us the different features to work with dates as date object by importing the datetime module.

Current Date

Python code to import the datetime module to access current date

import datetime

x = datetime.datetime.now()
print(x)

output

(Note-it will show the current date and time, at the time of execution of code on your machine)

2023-04-23 02:04:40.668286

The date format contains year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and microsecond.

Python code to return the year and name of the weekday:

import datetime

x = datetime.datetime.now()

print(x.year)
print(x.strftime("%A"))

Output

2023
Sunday

Creating Date Objects in Python

We can use the datetime() class (constructor) of the datetime module to create a date.

The datetime() class requires three parameters to create a date: year, month, day.

Python to create a date object

import datetime
x = datetime.datetime(2023, 4, 23)
print(x)

output

2023-04-23 00:00:00

note- 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 in Python datetime module

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:

Python code to display the name of the month:

import datetime 
x = datetime.datetime(2023, 4, 23) 
print(x.strftime("%B"))

Output

April

Python code syntax, to show the output for different <directive> provided in below table-

Syntax:

import datetime
x = datetime.datetime.now()
print(x.strftime("<Directive>")) #use directive from table

Directive	Description	Output
%a	Weekday, short version	Sun
%A	Weekday, full version	Sunday
%w	Weekday as a number 0-6, 0 is Sunday	0
%d	Day of month 01-31	23
%b	Month name, short version	Apr
%B	Month name, full version	April
%m	Month as a number 01-12	4
%y	Year, short version, without century	23
%Y	Year, full version	2023
%H	Hour 00-23	2
%I	Hour 00-12	2
%p	AM/PM	AM
%M	Minute 00-59	32
%S	Second 00-59	3
%f	Microsecond 000000-999999	3
%z	UTC offset	100
%Z	Timezone	CST
%j	Day number of year 001-366	113
%U	Week number of year, Sunday as the first day of week, 00-53	21
%W	Week number of year, Monday as the first day of week, 00-53	22
%c	Local version of date and time	Sun Apr 23 02:32:03 2023
%C	Century	20
%x	Local version of date	04/23/23
%X	Local version of time	02:35:20
%%	A % character	%
%G	ISO 8601 year	2023
%u	ISO 8601 weekday (1-7)	7
%V	ISO 8601 weeknumber (01-53)	16