Python – Get Current Date and Time – Examples & Explanation

import datetime

# getting current date and time
d = datetime.datetime.today()
print('Current date and time: ', d)

# getting current year
print('Current year: ', d.year)

#getting current month
print('Current month: ', d.month)

#getting current day
print('Current day: ', d.day)

# getting current hour
print('Current hour: ', d.hour)

# getting current minutes
print('Current minutes: ', d.minute)

# getting current Seconds
print('Current seconds: ', d.second)

# getting current microsecond
print('Current micro seconds: ', d.microsecond)

Output:

Current date and time: 2017-01-09 03:47:21.595913
Current year: 2017
Current month: 5
Current day: 9
Current hour: 3
Current minutes: 47
Current seconds: 21
Current micro seconds: 595913


You can use strftime method to format a date in Python. You can convert a date into any possible desired format by using this method. strftime method is used to create a string representing the date under the control of explicit format string.

You can use format specifiers or directives mentioned in the table “Complete List of Python DateTime Format Specifiers” below in this article to create explicit date format string.

In the following example, you can use % (character) directive to format date according to your requirement. Look at the following example carefully.

import datetime

d = datetime.datetime.today()

print ('Current date and time:', d)

# Converting date into DD-MM-YYYY format
print(d.strftime('%d-%m-%Y'))

#Look at another Example
print(d.strftime("%d-%B-%Y %H:%M:%S"))

Output:

Current date and time: 2017-01-09 04:08:02.214873
09-01-2017
09-January-2017 04:08:02
By using directives from the following table you can create a format of your date string.

By using directives from the following table you can create the format of your date string.

%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.

%S – Second as a decimal number [00,61].

%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.

%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.

%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.

import datetime

d = datetime.datetime.today()
print("Current date in ISO format: ", d.isoformat())

Output:

Current date in ISO format: 2017-01-09T04:14:58.947708