Python Datetime and Formatting

In python, it is possible to fetch the current datetime and timestamp using inbuilt libraries like datetime, time and pendulum.

Current Date time #

In this article, we will use python datetime package to get the current datetime, current date only, current time only and current timestamp.

Using python datetime package #

Import datetime module from datetime package to get current datetime.

Example: In the example, it returns a datetime class object containing the current date & time information in provided timezone. If timezone is None then returned object will contain the current date time information in local timezone.

from datetime import datetime
current_datetime = datetime.now(tz=None)
# datetime.now() is equivalent to datetime.now(tz=None)
print(current_date)

Output:

2022-08-11 11:35:45.239425

Extract Parts of Date #

You can extract the parts of date using datetime object attributes.

Let the current_datetime be the datetime object.

Example: below code creates current_datetime object.

Example:

from datetime import datetime
date_time_obj = datetime.now()

Output:

2022-08-11 11:35:45.239425

Extract Day #

We can extract day using attribute day.

date_time_obj.day # returns: 11

Extract Month #

We can extract month using attribute month.

date_time_obj.month # returns: 8

Extract Hour #

We can extract hour using attribute hour.

date_time_obj.hour # returns: 11

Extract Minute #

We can extract minute using attribute minute.

date_time_obj.minute # returns: 35

Extract Second #

We can extract second using attribute second.

date_time_obj.second # returns: 45

Format By Extracted Parts #

# Access the member variables of datetime object to print date & time information
print(date_time_obj.year, '/', date_time_obj.month, '/', date_time_obj.day)
print(date_time_obj.hour, ':', date_time_obj.minute, ':', date_time_obj.second, '.', date_time_obj.microsecond)

Get Datetime Format In String #

Instead of accessing each member of datetime object like above, we can directly convert the datetime object to interested string formats.

Example:

timestamp_str = date_time_obj.strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f')
print('Current Timestamp: ', timestamp_str)

output:

Current Timestamp:  2022-08-11T11:35:45.239425

Create Datetime Object From Datetime String #

We can easily convert the datetime string to datetime object using strptime method.

For example, we want to convert 2022-08-11T11:35:45.239425 into a datetime object.

Example:

from datetime import datetime

datetime_str = '2022-08-11T11:35:45.239425'
datetime_obj = datetime.strptime(datetime_str, '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f')

Get Current Date Only #

It is also possible to get date only from datetime object using date() method.

Example:

date_obj = datetime_obj.date() 
# returns: datetime.date(2022, 8, 11)

It is simple to get date string from date object.

Example:

date_str = str(datetime_obj.date()) 
# returns: '2022-08-11'

Get Current Time Only #

It is also possible to get date only from datetime object using time() method.

Example:

time_obj = datetime_obj.time() 
# returns: datetime.time(11, 42, 20, 682356)

It is simple to get time string from time object.

Example:

time_str = str(datetime_obj.time()) 
# returns: '11:42:20.682356'