Python datetime now | Module | TimeZone | Examples

In python getting a time and date can do by import one of them modules DateTime and time. Python DateTime is more preferable to get date and time.  Both time and DateTime modules are inbuilt, you don’t need any 3rd party library.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to get the current time, today’s date, and python DateTime timezone overview with an example.

Example of Python DateTime now

The example of getting the current date and time in python using the DateTime module and class.

import datetime

print(datetime.datetime.now())

Output: 2018-10-12 16:04:42.036760

The output is in the format of YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS:MS

To complete detailed example must read: Python Date Function

Python Time now Example

import time

# Time in second
print("Time : ", time.time())

# Time with associated attribute and values
print(time.localtime(time.time()))

Output: Time : 1539340637.700062
time.struct_time(tm_year=2018, tm_mon=10, tm_mday=12, tm_hour=16, tm_min=7, tm_sec=17, tm_wday=4, tm_yday=285, tm_isdst=0)

Here is seperate tutorial on time function –  Python Time Function

How to get a Specific string from the DateTime object

Using strftime () Method you can get a specific string from a datetime object, for an example year, day, month etc.

here is an example of getting the full name of weekday from today date

import datetime

# getting Full name of Weekday
print(datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%A"))

Output: Friday

Format codes in strftime:

Here is import format code for strftime.

Note: Examples are based on datetime.datetime(2018, 10, 10, 3, 38, 1, 844628)

Tutorial for a strftime method: Python strftime Function

Python DateTime TimeZone

Getting current timezone will be none, you have to use the import module for a date or add timezone using tzinfo.

import datetime

print(datetime.datetime.now().tzinfo)
print(datetime.datetime(2018, 10, 10, 3, 38, 1, 844628, tzinfo=datetime.timezone(datetime.timedelta(0, 3600))).tzinfo)

Output: None
UTC+01:00

QA: Difference between two dates.

You can calculate a number of days between two dates using date function like this.

from datetime import date

date0 = date(2018, 8, 18)
date1 = date(2019, 9, 26)
delta = date1 - date0
print(delta.days)

Output: 404

Do comment if you have any doubt and suggestion on this tutorial.

Note: This example (Project) is developed in PyCharm 2018.2 (Community Edition)
JRE: 1.8.0
JVM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o
macOS 10.13.6

Python 3.7

All examples are in Python 3, so it may change its different from python 2 or upgraded versions.