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How to get the current date and time in Python

Date: 2008-06-26  |   Modified: 2008-09-09  |   Tags: datetime, python   |   9 Comments

Here is an example of how to get the current date and time using the datetime module in Python:

import datetime

now = datetime.datetime.now()

print
print "Current date and time using str method of datetime object:"
print str(now)

print
print "Current date and time using instance attributes:"
print "Current year: %d" % now.year
print "Current month: %d" % now.month
print "Current day: %d" % now.day
print "Current hour: %d" % now.hour
print "Current minute: %d" % now.minute
print "Current second: %d" % now.second
print "Current microsecond: %d" % now.microsecond

print
print "Current date and time using strftime:"
print now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M")

Results:
Current date and time using str method of datetime object:
2008-06-26 11:33:15.309236

Current date and time using instance attributes:
Current year: 2008
Current month: 6
Current day: 26
Current hour: 11
Current minute: 33
Current second: 15
Current microsecond: 309236

Current date and time using strftime:
2008-06-26 11:33


Directly from the time module documentation, here are more options to use with strftime:
Directive Meaning Notes
%a Locale's abbreviated weekday name.
%A Locale's full weekday name.
%b Locale's abbreviated month name.
%B Locale's full month name.
%c Locale's appropriate date and time representation.
%d Day of the month as a decimal number [01,31].
%H Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number [00,23].
%I Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number [01,12].
%j Day of the year as a decimal number [001,366].
%m Month as a decimal number [01,12].
%M Minute as a decimal number [00,59].
%p Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM. (1)
%S Second as a decimal number [00,61]. (2)
%U Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0. (3)
%w Weekday as a decimal number [0(Sunday),6].
%W Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in a new year preceding the first Monday are considered to be in week 0. (3)
%x Locale's appropriate date representation.
%X Locale's appropriate time representation.
%y Year without century as a decimal number [00,99].
%Y Year with century as a decimal number.
%Z Time zone name (no characters if no time zone exists).
%% A literal "%" character.


See also:

9 Comments — feed icon Comments feed for this post


#1 Kasper commented on 2009-04-17:

Cool. Very useful, thanks :)


#2 Ian commented on 2009-08-13:

Thank you for the concise and well laid-out example code.


#3 gary commented on 2009-10-22:

Came in very handy for a little FTP script I just wrote in Python. Thanks.


#4 python developer commented on 2009-10-22:

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak you so much for the CLEAR, CLEAN and COMPLETE SOLUTION.


#5 django commented on 2009-11-16:

How convert date from string "Sat Nov 22"?


#6 Eliot commented on 2010-01-14:

django, see my other post: Python datetime / time conversions


#7 maniek commented on 2010-07-05:

Short datetime display:

print str(now)[:10]

output: 2010-07-05

print str(now)[:16]

output: 2010-07-05 20:34

print str(now)[:19]

output: 2010-07-05 20:34:26


#8 Soule commented on 2010-07-18:

Absolutely terrific.

Did the trick for me, thanks A LOT. crucial for a project im working on;

Two questions:

How to display time in specific timezone, like in my case Pacific? and Also, how to print in 12 Hour format? I got around this by using an array, but is there any official way of doing that?

You're answer asap would be tremendously appreciated - Great Blog!


#9 Eliot commented on 2010-07-18:

Soule: Thanks, glad it was helpful... To print the time in 12-Hour format use the %I formatting string with strftime. To handle timezones, I use the pytz package. For more info, see my other blog post: Converting time zones for datetime objects in Python. Hope that helps.

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