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The datetime package

The datetime package#

date objects#

from datetime import date

today_var = date.today()
today_var

datetime.date(2024, 5, 18)

today_var.year

2024

today_var.month

5

today_var.day

18

# monday = 0 & sunday = 6
today_var.weekday()

5

today_var.isoformat()

'2024-05-18'

birthday = date(year=1986, month=6, day=3)
birthday.isoformat()

'1986-06-03'

time objects#

from datetime import time

some_time = time(hour=16, minute=59, second=23, microsecond=254724)
some_time.isoformat()

'16:59:23.254724'

datetime objects#

from datetime import datetime

this_time = datetime.now()
this_time

datetime.datetime(2024, 5, 18, 14, 52, 14, 758757)

this_time.isoformat()

'2024-05-18T14:52:14.758757'

string versions of dates#

See the following table for date format codes. Also see here.

Directive

Meaning

Example

%a

Weekday as locale’s abbreviated name.

Sun, Mon

%A

Weekday as locale’s full name.

Sunday, Monday

%b

Month as locale’s abbreviated name.

Jan, Feb

%B

Month as locale’s full name.

January, February

%d

Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number.

01, 02, …, 31

%m

Month as a zero-padded decimal number.

01, 02, …, 12

%y

Year without century as a zero-padded decimal number.

00, 01, …, 99

%Y

Year with century as a decimal number.

2013, 2014

%H

Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.

00, 01, …, 23

%I

Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.

01, 02, …, 12

%p

Locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM.

AM, PM

%M

Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.

00, 01, …, 59

%S

Second as a zero-padded decimal number.

00, 01, …, 59

Print out a datetime value with a specific format. This will obviously work for dates or times as well.

d = datetime.now()
d.strftime('%I:%M %p on %B %d, %Y')

'02:52 PM on May 18, 2024'

dates from strings#

Suppose we have the following strings that need to be converted to dates/times/datetimes.

string_datetime = '10:48 PM on May 03, 2022'
string_date_1 = 'June 3, 1986'
string_date_2 = '6/3/86'
string_time = '11:15 PM'

We need to use the format codes in the previous table.

string_datetime = '10:48 PM on May 03, 2022'
datetime.strptime(string_datetime, '%I:%M %p on %B %d, %Y')

datetime.datetime(2022, 5, 3, 22, 48)

date does not have attribute strptime(). So if we technically want a date and not a datetime, then an additional step is required.

string_date_1 = 'June 3, 1986'
initial_obj = datetime.strptime(string_date_1, '%B %d, %Y')
date(
    year=initial_obj.year,
    month=initial_obj.month,
    day=initial_obj.day,
)

datetime.date(1986, 6, 3)

string_date_2 = '6/3/86'
initial_obj = datetime.strptime(string_date_2, '%m/%d/%y')
date(
    year=initial_obj.year,
    month=initial_obj.month,
    day=initial_obj.day,
)

datetime.date(1986, 6, 3)

time does not have attribute strptime(). So if we technically want a time, then an additional step is required.

string_time = '11:15 PM'
initial_obj = datetime.strptime(string_time, '%I:%M %p')
time(
    hour=initial_obj.hour,
    minute=initial_obj.minute,
)

datetime.time(23, 15)

timedelta objects#

Attention

Need to add this section.

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