How to Get Formatted Date and Time in Python?

Introduction:

Here we are learning to get formatted date and time. Different date formats are used in many parts of the world, so most programming languages provide different date formats for developers to work with. In Python, this is done using a liberty, which is known as DateTime. It contains classes and methods that can be used to manipulate dates and times. For using this module, we must first import it using the following keywords -

Using the strftime() Function:

The strftime() function is used to returns a formatted date and time. It accepts a string type that you can use to get the results you want. The following are the commands that it supports.

SL. No.	Directives	Meaning of directives
1	%a	Short name of the field's weekday.
2	%B	Get the full month's name of the locales.
3	%c	Represent the appropriate date and time of the locales.
4	%d	Represent the day of the month as an integer [01,31].
5	%H	Represent the 24-hour clock as a decimal number [00,23].
6	%I	Represent the 12-hour clock as a decimal number [01,12].
7	%M	Represent the month as a decimal number [00,59].
8	%m	Represent the month as a decimal number [01,12].
9	%p	Locale is equivalent to AM or PM.
10	%S	Represent the second clock as a decimal number [00,61].
11	%U	The number of the week in the year as a whole number (Sunday is the first day of the week) [00,53].
12	%W	The number of the week in the year as a whole number (Monday is the first day of the week) [00,53]. Every day before the first Monday of the new year is considered week 0.
13	%w	Represent the weekday as a decimal number like [0(Sunday),6(Saturday)].
14	%X	The time is appropriate to represent the Locale.
15	%x	The date is appropriate to represent the Locale.
16	%Y	Represent the year with century as a decimal number.
17	%y	Represent the year without century as a decimal number [0,99].
18	%Z	Represents the time zone name (unsigned if there is no time zone).
19	%%	Represent the literal "%" character.

Using the strftime() Function of the datetime Module:

Given a date, time, or datetime object in the strftime() method returns a string which is representing the date and time. For example, the code %d-%m-%Y%H:%M:%S converts the date to dd-mm-yyyy hh:mm:ss format.

Program Code:

Here we give a program code to get formatted date and time by using the strftime() function in Python. The code is given below -

 
# Here, we import the datetime module
from datetime import datetime
# Here, we get the current date and current time
c_datetime = datetime.now()
# Here, we get the current year from the current date and time
c_year = c_datetime.strftime("%Y")
print("The current year is:", c_year)
# Here, we get the current month from the current date and time
c_month = c_datetime.strftime("%m")
print("The current month is:", c_month)
# Here, we get the current day or date from the current date and time
c_day = c_datetime.strftime("%d")
print("The current day is:", c_day)
# Here, we get the current time from the current date and time 
c_time = c_datetime.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
print("The current time is:", c_time)
c_date_time = c_datetime.strftime("%m/%d/%Y, %H:%M:%S")
print("The current date and time is:", c_date_time)   

Output:

Now we run the above code and find the result from it. If the program is run in the online editor, then it will display the GMT. If it is run in the local system editor then it will display the time itself. The result is given below -

 
The current year is: 2024
The current month is: 05
The current day is: 01
The current time is: 16:33:02
The current date and time is: 05/01/2024, 16:33:02

Using the Time Class:

The time class represents time values. Its attributes are hours, minutes, seconds, and microseconds.

Syntax:

The syntax of the time class is given below -

Program Code 1:

Here we give a program code to get formatted time by using the time class in Python. The code is given below -

 
# Here, we import the datetime module
import datetime
 
# Here, we format the time
time = datetime.time(4, 10, 20, 20)
print("The formatted time is:", time)   

Output:

Now we run the above code and find the result from it. The output is given below -

 
The formatted time is: 04:10:20.000020

Program Code 2:

Here we give another program code to get formatted time by using the time class in Python. There are many examples of the time attribute ranges. Time attribute examples have three properties: hour, minute, second, and microsecond. These are used to obtain specific information over time. The code is given below -

 
# Here, we import the datetime module
import datetime
 
# Here, we format the time
time = datetime.time(4, 10, 20, 20)
 
# Here, we print the formatted time of time attributes
print('Time is:', time.hour,' hour ', time.minute,' minute ', time.second,' second and ', time.microsecond, 'microsecond')   

Output:

Now we run the above code and find the result from it. The output is given below -

 
Time is: 4 hour 10 minute 20 second and 20 microsecond

Using the Date Class:

The date class represents calendar date values. Date examples include year, month, and day properties.

Syntax:

The syntax of the date class is given below -

Program Code:

Here we give a program code to get a formatted date by using the date class in Python. The code is given below -

 
# Here, we import the datetime module
import datetime
 
# Here we formatting the date
date = datetime.date(2000, 5, 5)
 
# Here we print the formatted date with the date attributes
print('The Date is:', date.day, 'day,', date.month, 'month and', date.year, 'year')   

Output:

Now we run the above code and find the result from it. The output is given below -

 
The Date is: 5 day, 5 month and 2000 year

Convert the Date to String:

Since dates and times are not the same as strings. So, it is necessary to convert dates and times to strings. We use the strftime() function for this.

Syntax:

The syntax to convert the date to string is given below -

Parameters:

The parameters to convert the date to a string are given below -

format: It is a string type. Instructions can be placed in the format string.
t: It represent the formatted time.

Program Code:

Here we give a program code to convert the date to string. In this code, the characters %H, %M, and %S represent hours, minutes, and seconds respectively. On the other hand, the characters %b, %d, and %Y representing the month, day, and year respectively. The output is given below -

 
# Here, we import the datetime module
import datetime
 
# Here we formatting the date and time
date_time = datetime.datetime(2000, 5, 5, 4, 29, 40)
 
# Here, we print the formatted date and time with the date and time attributes
print("The formatted date and time is:", date_time.strftime("%b %d %Y %H:%M:%S"))   

Output:

Now we run the above code and find the result from it. The output is given below -

 
The formatted date and time is: May 05 2000 04:29:40

Convert the String to Date:

When working with datasets imported from CSV or input from website files, it is often necessary to convert from string to date. Python has a function called strptime() that converts the string to date.

Syntax:

The syntax to convert the string to date is given below -

Parameters:

The parameters to convert the string to date are given below -

string: It represent the formatted string.
format: It is a string type. Instructions can be placed in the format string.

Program Code:

Here we give a program code to convert the string into the date-month-year format in Python. The output is given below -

 
# Here, we import the datetime module
from datetime import datetime
 
# Here, we convert the input string to the date format like date-month-year format
print("The formatted date and time is: ", datetime.strptime('5/5/2000', '%d/%m/%Y'))   

Output:

Now we run the above code and find the result from it. The output is given below -

 
The formatted date and time is:  2000-05-05 00:00:00

Conclusion:

Here we learn to format a date and time using the datetime module. We also learn how to format a date by converting it to a string and returning it to the date. We also learn some program code.

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