Python Dates and Datetime

Python Dates

Python has no dedicated data type for dates. Instead, you import a module called datetime and work with dates as date objects.

Example

Print the current date after importing the datetime module:

Import the `datetime` module and display the current date and time using `datetime.datetime.now()`.
> Output: complete Python program

Prompt

Import the datetime module and display the current date and time using datetime.datetime.now().

Output: complete Python program

Date Output

The output you see comes from running the code in the previous example.

A date value like this is made up of the year, month, day, hour, minute, second and microsecond.

Plenty of methods in the datetime module can tell you more about a date object.

Here is a small sample; the rest of this lesson covers more:

Example

Print the year and the weekday name:

Import the `datetime` module, get the current date.
Print the year and the name of the weekday using `strftime("%A")`.
> Output: complete Python program

Prompt

Import the datetime module, get the current date. Print the year and the name of the weekday using strftime("%A").

Output: complete Python program

import datetime

x = datetime.datetime.now()

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

Creating Date Objects

The datetime() class, a constructor in the datetime module, is what you call to create a date.

It needs three parameters: year, month and day.

You can also pass time and timezone values (hour, minute, second, microsecond, tzinfo). These are optional and default to 0, or None in the case of the timezone.

Example

Build a date object:

Import the `datetime` module and create a date object for May 17, 2020.
Use `datetime.datetime(2020, 5, 17)` and print it.
> Output: complete Python program

Prompt

Import the datetime module and create a date object for May 17, 2020. Use datetime.datetime(2020, 5, 17) and print it.

Output: complete Python program

The strftime() Method

To turn a date object into a readable string, use a method of the datetime object.

That method is strftime(). Its single parameter, format, describes how the returned string should look:

These are the format codes you can use:

%a - Short weekday name (Wed)
%A - Full weekday name (Wednesday)
%w - Weekday number 0-6, with Sunday as 0 (3)
%d - Day of the month, 01-31 (31)
%b - Short month name (Dec)
%B - Full month name (December)
%m - Month number, 01-12 (12)
%y - Two-digit year, no century (18)
%Y - Four-digit year (2018)
%H - Hour on a 24-hour clock, 00-23 (17)
%I - Hour on a 12-hour clock, 01-12 (05)
%p - AM or PM (PM)
%M - Minute, 00-59 (41)
%S - Second, 00-59 (08)
%f - Microsecond, 000000-999999 (548513)
%z - Offset from UTC (+0100)
%Z - Timezone name (CST)
%j - Day of the year, 001-366 (365)
%U - Week of the year, 00-53, with weeks starting on Sunday (52)
%W - Week of the year, 00-53, with weeks starting on Monday (52)
%c - Date and time in local format (Mon Dec 31 17:41:00 2018)
%C - Century (20)
%x - Date in local format (12/31/18)
%X - Time in local format (17:41:00)
%% - Literal % character (%)
%G - ISO 8601 year (2018)
%u - Weekday number in ISO 8601, 1-7 (1)
%V - ISO 8601 week number, 01-53 (01)

Example

Print the full name of the month:

Import the `datetime` module and create a date object for June 1, 2018.
Use `strftime("%B")` to display the full month name.
> Output: complete Python program

Prompt

Import the datetime module and create a date object for June 1, 2018. Use strftime("%B") to display the full month name.

Output: complete Python program

import datetime

x = datetime.datetime(2018, 6, 1)

print(x.strftime("%B"))