Python Tutorials · Python Dates

Python Dates

Learn all about Python Dates in this comprehensive tutorial.

5 min read intermediate

•A date in Python is not a data type of its own, but we can import a module named datetime to work with dates as date objects.
•When we execute the code from the example above the result will be:
•To create a date, we can use the datetime() class (constructor) of the datetime module.
•The datetime object has a method for formatting date objects into readable strings.

Python Dates

A date in Python is not a data type of its own, but we can import a module named datetime to work with dates as date objects.

python

import datetimex = datetime.datetime.now()print(val_1)

Date Output

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

The date contains year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and microsecond.

The datetime module has many methods to return information about the date object.

Here are a few examples, you will learn more about them later in this chapter:

python

import datetimex = datetime.datetime.now()print(val_1.year)
  print(val_1.strftime("%A"))

Creating Date Objects

To create a date, we can use the datetime() class (constructor) of the datetime module.

The datetime() class requires three parameters to create a date: year, month, day.

python

import datetimex = datetime.datetime(2020, 5, 17)
print(val_1)

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

The strftime() Method

The datetime object has a method for formatting date objects into readable strings.

The method is called strftime(), and takes one parameter, format, to specify the format of the returned string:

python

import datetimex = datetime.datetime(2018, 6, 1)print(val_1.strftime("%B"))

A reference of all the legal format codes:

Directive	Description	Example	Try it
%a	Weekday, short version	Wed	Try it »
%A	Weekday, full version	Wednesday	Try it »
%w	Weekday as a number 0-6, 0 is Sunday	3	Try it »
%d	Day of month 01-31	31	Try it »
%b	Month name, short version	Dec	Try it »
%B	Month name, full version	December	Try it »
%m	Month as a number 01-12	12	Try it »
%y	Year, short version, without century	18	Try it »
%Y	Year, full version	2018	Try it »
%H	Hour 00-23	17	Try it »
%I	Hour 00-12	05	Try it »
%p	AM/PM	PM	Try it »
%M	Minute 00-59	41	Try it »
%S	Second 00-59	08	Try it »
%f	Microsecond 000000-999999	548513	Try it »
%z	UTC offset	+0100
%Z	Timezone	CST
%j	Day number of year 001-366	365	Try it »
%U	Week number of year, Sunday as the first day of week, 00-53	52	Try it »
%W	Week number of year, Monday as the first day of week, 00-53	52	Try it »
%c	Local version of date and time	Mon Dec 31 17:41:00 2018	Try it »
%C	Century	20	Try it »
%x	Local version of date	12/31/18	Try it »
%X	Local version of time	17:41:00	Try it »
%%	A % character	%	Try it »
%G	ISO 8601 year	2018	Try it »
%u	ISO 8601 weekday (1-7)	1	Try it »
%V	ISO 8601 weeknumber (01-53)	01	Try it »

Module quiz

2 questions

Which of the following is true about Python Dates?

It is strictly typedIt is evaluated at runtimeIt requires explicit memory managementIt is deprecated

What is the most common pitfall when working with Python Dates?

SyntaxErrorIndentationErrorNameErrorTypeError

Answer all questions to submit.

Python Modules

Python Math

Python Dates

AI Summary

Python Dates

Date Output

Creating Date Objects

The strftime() Method

Module quiz