Python Datetime
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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 |
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| %a |
Weekday, short version |
Wed |
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| %A |
Weekday, full version |
Wednesday |
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| %w |
Weekday as a number 0-6, 0 is Sunday |
3 |
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| %d |
Day of month 01-31 |
31 |
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| %b |
Month name, short version |
Dec |
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| %B |
Month name, full version |
December |
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| %m |
Month as a number 01-12 |
12 |
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| %y |
Year, short version, without century |
18 |
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| %Y |
Year, full version |
2018 |
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| %H |
Hour 00-23 |
17 |
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| %I |
Hour 00-12 |
05 |
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| %p |
AM/PM |
PM |
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| %M |
Minute 00-59 |
41 |
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| %S |
Second 00-59 |
08 |
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| %f |
Microsecond 000000-999999 |
548513 |
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| %z |
UTC offset |
+0100 |
|
| %Z |
Timezone |
CST |
|
| %j |
Day number of year 001-366 |
365 |
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| %U |
Week number of year, Sunday as the first day of week, 00-53 |
52 |
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| %W |
Week number of year, Monday as the first day of week, 00-53 |
52 |
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| %c |
Local version of date and time |
Mon Dec 31 17:41:00 2018 |
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| %C |
Century |
20 |
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| %x |
Local version of date |
12/31/18 |
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| %X |
Local version of time |
17:41:00 |
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| %% |
A % character |
% |
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| %G |
ISO 8601 year |
2018 |
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| %u |
ISO 8601 weekday (1-7) |
1 |
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| %V |
ISO 8601 weeknumber (01-53) |
01 |
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