Python Get Today’s Current Date and Time

Author: Vivek Gite Last updated: December 17, 2019 16 comments

How do I find out the current date and time in Python? What is the module or function I need to use to get current time or date in Python programming language? How can I get today’s date and current date and time in Python in different formats using strftime() method?

Tutorial details
Difficulty	Easy (rss)
Root privileges	No
Requirements	Python v2.x+
Time	2m

You can use time module (low level) which provides various time-related functions. However, this module is always available, not all functions are available on all platforms. Hence, you need to use the datetime (high level Object-oriented interface to dates and times) module in Python. It provides classes for manipulating dates and times in both simple and complex ways. While date and time arithmetic is supported, the focus of the implementation is on efficient attribute extraction for output formatting and manipulation.

How to get current date and time in Python?

The syntax is:

time.strftime(format)
## 24 hour format ##
time.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
## 12 hour format ##
time.strftime("%I:%M:%S")

Here is another example done using datetime module:

#!/usr/bin/python3
from datetime import date
 
 
today = date.today()
fdate = date.today().strftime('%d/%m/%Y')
 
print("Today's current date is -", today)
print("Date in dd/mm/YYYY format -", fdate)

Getting current time in python using time module

Let us see some examples of time module:

Examples

A simple program in python to get today’s date and time:

#!/usr/bin/python
 
import time
print (time.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))
 
## 12 hour format ##
print (time.strftime("%I:%M:%S"))

Sample outputs:

23:46:08
11:46:08

To print current date use:

#!/usr/bin/python
 
import time
## dd/mm/yyyy format
print (time.strftime("%d/%m/%Y"))

Sample outputs:

04/10/2013

Getting locals date and time in Python

#!/usr/bin/python
# Purpose: Python Current Date Time Demo
# Author: nixCraft 
# --------------------------------------------
import time
 
now = time.strftime("%c")
## date and time representation
print "Current date & time " + time.strftime("%c")
 
## Only date representation
print "Current date "  + time.strftime("%x")
 
## Only time representation
print "Current time " + time.strftime("%X")
 
## Display current date and time from now variable 
print ("Current time %s"  % now )

Sample outputs:

Current date & time Sat Oct  5 00:04:59 2013
Current date 10/05/13
Current time 00:04:59
Current time Sat Oct  5 00:04:59 2013

Format strings to get the current date and time in Python

The following directives can be embedded in the format string:

Directive	Meaning
`%a`	Weekday name.
`%A`	Full weekday name.
`%b`	Abbreviated month name.
`%B`	Full month name.
`%c`	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`	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`	Appropriate date representation.
`%X`	Apropriate 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.

Get the current date and time in Python using datetime module

The syntax is:

now = datetime.datetime.now()
now.hour
now.mintue
now.year
now.day
now.month

Examples

#!/usr/bin/python
import datetime
i = datetime.datetime.now()
 
print ("Current date & time = %s" % i)
 
print ("Date and time in ISO format = %s" % i.isoformat() )
 
print ("Current year = %s" %i.year)
 
print ("Current month = %s" %i.month)
 
print ("Current date (day) =  %s" %i.day)
 
print ("dd/mm/yyyy format =  %s/%s/%s" % (i.day, i.month, i.year) )
 
print ("Current hour = %s" %i.hour)
 
print ("Current minute = %s" %i.minute)
 
print ("Current second =  %s" %i.second)
 
print ("hh:mm:ss format = %s:%s:%s" % (i.hour, i.month, i.second) )

Sample outputs:

Current date & time = 2013-10-05 00:15:31.769049
Date and time in ISO format = 2013-10-05T00:15:31.769049
Current year = 2013
Current month = 10
Current date (day) =  5
dd/mm/yyyy format =  5/10/2013
Current hour = 0
Current minute = 15
Current second =  31
hh:mm:ss format = 0:10:31

I tested above programes with both Python 2 and Python 3:

Python Get Today's Current Date and Time

How to get current date and time in Python?

You can use date.strftime(format) to get a string representing the date, controlled by an explicit format string (see above table):

#!/usr/bin/python
 
from datetime import datetime
 
i = datetime.now()
 
print str(i)
 
print i.strftime('%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S')

Sample outputs:

2013-10-05 00:20:30.495228
2013/10/05 00:20:30

Conclusion

You learned how to to get today’s date and current date and time in Python using various methods. See python time and datetime module for more info.

🐧 Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix, Open Source/DevOps topics:

RSS feed or Weekly email newsletter
Share to Twitter • Facebook • 16 comments... add one ↓

UP NEXT

Category	List of Unix and Linux commands
File Management	cat
Firewall	CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04
Network Utilities	dig • host • ip • nmap
OpenVPN	CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04
Package Manager	apk • apt
Processes Management	bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time
Searching	grep • whereis • which
User Information	groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w
WireGuard VPN	CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04