Date Time Functions

Python has a module named datetime to work with dates and times. Let's create a few simple programs related to date and time before we dig deeper.

Example 1: Get Current Date and Time

import datetime
datetime_object = datetime.datetime.now()
print(datetime_object)

2019-05-19 09:26:03.478039

Example 2: Get Current Date

import datetime
date_object = datetime.date.today()
print(date_object)

2019-05-19

Example 3: Date object to represent a date

import datetime
d = datetime.date(2019, 4, 13)
print(d)

2019-04-13

Example 4: Get current date

from datetime import date
today = date.today()
print("Current date =", today)

2019-05-19

Timestamp is the number of seconds between a particular date and January 1, 1970 at UTC

1 day = 86400 seconds

10 day = 864000 seconds

100 day = 8640000 seconds

Example 5: Get date from a timestamp

from datetime import date
timestamp = date.fromtimestamp(1326244364)
print("Date =", timestamp)

Date = 2012-01-11

Example 6: Print today's year, month and day

from datetime import date

# date object of today's date
today = date.today() 

print("Current year:", today.year)
print("Current month:", today.month)
print("Current day:", today.day)

Current year: 2019

Current month: 5

Current day: 19

Example 7: Time object to represent time

from datetime import time

# time(hour = 0, minute = 0, second = 0)
a = time()
print("a =", a)

# time(hour, minute and second)
b = time(11, 34, 56)
print("b =", b)

# time(hour, minute and second)
c = time(hour = 11, minute = 34, second = 56)
print("c =", c)

# time(hour, minute, second, microsecond)
d = time(11, 34, 56, 234566)
print("d =", d)

a = 00:00:00

b = 11:34:56

c = 11:34:56

d = 11:34:56.234566

Example 8: Print hour, minute, second and microsecond

from datetime import time

a = time(11, 34, 56)

print("hour =", a.hour)
print("minute =", a.minute)
print("second =", a.second)
print("microsecond =", a.microsecond)

hour = 11

minute = 34

second = 56

microsecond = 0

Example 9: Python datetime object

from datetime import datetime

#datetime(year, month, day)
a = datetime(2018, 11, 28)
print(a)

# datetime(year, month, day, hour, minute, second, microsecond)
b = datetime(2017, 11, 28, 23, 55, 59, 342380)
print(b)

2018-11-28 00:00:00

2017-11-28 23:55:59.342380

Example 10: Print year, month, hour, minute and timestamp

from datetime import datetime

a = datetime(2017, 11, 28, 23, 55, 59, 342380)
print("year =", a.year)
print("month =", a.month)
print("hour =", a.hour)
print("minute =", a.minute)
print("timestamp =", a.timestamp())

year = 2017

month = 11

day = 28

hour = 23

minute = 55

timestamp = 1511913359.34238

Example 11: Difference between two dates and times

from datetime import datetime, date

t1 = date(year = 2018, month = 7, day = 12)
t2 = date(year = 2017, month = 12, day = 23)
t3 = t1 - t2
print("t3 =", t3)

t4 = datetime(year = 2018, month = 7, day = 12, hour = 7, minute = 9, second = 33)
t5 = datetime(year = 2019, month = 6, day = 10, hour = 5, minute = 55, second = 13)
t6 = t4 - t5
print("t6 =", t6)

print("type of t3 =", type(t3)) 
print("type of t6 =", type(t6))  

t3 = 201 days, 0:00:00

t6 = -333 days, 1:14:20

type of t3 = <class 'datetime.timedelta'>

type of t6 = <class 'datetime.timedelta'>

Example 12: Difference between two timedelta objects

from datetime import timedelta

t1 = timedelta(weeks = 2, days = 5, hours = 1, seconds = 33)
t2 = timedelta(days = 4, hours = 11, minutes = 4, seconds = 54)
t3 = t1 - t2

print("t3 =", t3)

t3 = 14 days, 13:55:39

Example 13: Printing negative timedelta object

from datetime import timedelta

t1 = timedelta(seconds = 33)
t2 = timedelta(seconds = 54)
t3 = t1 - t2

print("t3 =", t3)
print("t3 =", abs(t3))

t3 = -1 day, 23:59:39

t3 = 0:00:21

Handling timezone in Python

from datetime import datetime
import pytz

local = datetime.now()
print("Local:", local.strftime("%m/%d/%Y, %H:%M:%S"))

tz_NY = pytz.timezone('America/New_York') 
datetime_NY = datetime.now(tz_NY)
print("NY:", datetime_NY.strftime("%m/%d/%Y, %H:%M:%S"))

tz_London = pytz.timezone('Europe/London')
datetime_London = datetime.now(tz_London)
print("London:", datetime_London.strftime("%m/%d/%Y, %H:%M:%S"))

Local: 04/23/2020, 12:00:11

NY: 04/23/2020, 02:30:11

London: 04/23/2020, 07:30:11