Dates for Python

A date in Python is not a data form of its own, but to work with dates as date objects, we can import a module called datetime. First you have to install it on your computer if you dont't have just simply do "pip install datetime" then you import it. So, in this example I will be showing you how to Import the datetime module and display the current date

       :
       import datetime
       x = datetime.datetime.now()
       print(x)

Date Output

When we execute the code from the example above the result will be

   :
   2021-01-20 14:01:32.454684

Year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and microseconds are included in the date.The datetime module has several methods for returning the date object information.

Here are a few examples, you will learn more about them later in this chapter: Example; Return the year and name of weekday

          :
          import datetime
          x = datetime.datetime.now()
          print(x.year)
          print(x.strftime("%A"))

Date Output

When we execute the code from the example above the result will be

 :
 2021
 Wednesday

Creating Date Objects

You can use the datetime () class constructor of the datetime module to create a date. For creating a date, the datetime() class includes three parameters: year, month, day. Example; Create a date object

           :
           import datetime
           x = datetime.datetime(2021, 1, 20)
            print(x)

Date Output

When we execute the code from the example above the result will be

   :
   2021-01-20 00:00:00

The datetime() class also takes time and time zone parameters (hour, minute, second, microsecond, tzone), but they are optional and have a value of 0, by default (None for timezone).

The strftime() Method

The datetime object has a method by which date objects can be formatted into readable strings. The method is called strftime() and takes one format parameter to define the format of the string returned. Example; Display the name of the month

  :
  import datetime
  x = datetime.datetime(2021, 1, 1)
  print(x.strftime("%B"))

Date Output

When we execute the code from the example above the result will be

  :
 January

A reference of all the legal format codes:

Directive Description Example
%a Weekday, short version Wed
%A Weekday, full version Wednesday
%w Weekday as a number 0-6, 0 is Sunday 3
%d Day of month 01-31 31
%b Month name, short version Dec
%B Month name, full version December %m Month as a number 01-12 12
%y Year, short version, without century 18
%Y Year, full version 2018
%H Hour 00-23 17
%I Hour 00-12 05
%p AM/PM PM
%M Minute 00-59 41
%S Second 00-59 08
%f Microsecond 000000-999999 548513
%z UTC offset +0100
%Z Timezone CST
%j Day number of year 001-366 365
%U Week number of year, Sunday as the first day of week, 00-53 52
%W Week number of year, Monday as the first day of week, 00-53 52
%c Local version of date and time Mon Dec 31 17:41:00 2018
%x Local version of date 12/31/18
%X Local version of time 17:41:00
%% A % character %
%G ISO 8601 year 2018
%u ISO 8601 weekday (1-7) 1
%V ISO 8601 weeknumber (01-53) 01