How to get current date and time in Python?

How to Get Current Date and Time in Python

Python provides several convenient ways to fetch the current date and time using the datetime module.

1. Get Today's Date

To get the current local date, use the date class from the datetime module.

Example 1:

from datetime import date

# Get today's date
today = date.today()
print("Today's date:", today)

Output:

Today's date: 2022-12-27

date.today(): Fetches the current date in the format YYYY-MM-DD.

2. Current Date in Different Formats

The strftime() method lets you format the date in various styles.

Example 2:

from datetime import date

# Get today's date
today = date.today()

# Different formats
d1 = today.strftime("%d/%m/%Y")  # Day/Month/Year
print("d1 =", d1)

d2 = today.strftime("%B %d, %Y")  # Full Month Name
print("d2 =", d2)

d3 = today.strftime("%m/%d/%y")  # Month/Day/Short Year
print("d3 =", d3)

d4 = today.strftime("%b-%d-%Y")  # Month Abbreviation
print("d4 =", d4)

Output:

d1 = 27/12/2022  
d2 = December 27, 2022  
d3 = 12/27/22  
d4 = Dec-27-2022

3. Get Current Date and Time

To fetch both the current date and time, use the datetime class.

Example 3:

from datetime import datetime

# Get current date and time
now = datetime.now()

print("now =", now)  # Default format (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.microseconds)

# Format date and time
dt_string = now.strftime("%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S")  # Day/Month/Year Hour:Minute:Second
print("date and time =", dt_string)

Output:

now = 2022-12-27 10:09:20.430322  
date and time = 27/12/2022 10:09:20

Key Date and Time Format Codes

Format Code	Description	Example Output
`%d`	Day of the month	`27`
`%m`	Month (numeric)	`12`
`%B`	Full month name	`December`
`%b`	Month abbreviation	`Dec`
`%Y`	Year (4 digits)	`2022`
`%y`	Year (last 2 digits)	`22`
`%H`	Hour (24-hour clock)	`10`
`%M`	Minutes	`09`
`%S`	Seconds	`20`