Dates in Python

Python's built-in datetime module provides various classes for manipulating dates and times. Below are some common use-cases with examples.

Importing `datetime`

First, you'll need to import the datetime module.

import datetime

Getting Current Date and Time

You can get the current date and time using datetime.datetime.now().

current_datetime = datetime.datetime.now()
print("Current datetime:", current_datetime)

Creating Date Objects

To create a date object, you can use datetime.date, specifying the year, month, and day.

some_date = datetime.date(2021, 9, 30)
print("Some date:", some_date)

Creating Time Objects

To create a time object, you can use datetime.time, specifying the hour, minute, second, and optionally microsecond.

some_time = datetime.time(13, 24, 56)
print("Some time:", some_time)

Creating Datetime Objects

To create a datetime object, you can use datetime.datetime.

some_datetime = datetime.datetime(2021, 9, 30, 13, 24, 56)
print("Some datetime:", some_datetime)

Extracting Components

You can extract various components from a datetime object like so:

print("Year:", some_datetime.year)
print("Month:", some_datetime.month)
print("Day:", some_datetime.day)
print("Hour:", some_datetime.hour)
print("Minute:", some_datetime.minute)
print("Second:", some_datetime.second)

Formatting Datetime Objects: `strftime`

The strftime method (string format time) converts a datetime object to a string according to the specified format.

In the example below we use strftime to express the current date as YYYY-MM:

now = datetime.now()
formatted = now.strftime('%Y-%m')
print(formatted)
# 2024-06

Another example, for YYYY-MM-DD H:M:S:

formatted_datetime = some_datetime.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
print("Formatted datetime:", formatted_datetime)

Examples

Convert a unix timestamp to readable date

def convert_timestamp(timestamp):
    date_object = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp)
    formatted_date = date_object.strftime("%d-%m-%Y")
    return formatted_date

converted = convert_timestamp(1689023491)
print(converted)
# 10-07-2023

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