In this Python tutorial, we will learn how to use datetime library for different operations like getting current time, finding difference between two timestamps, accessing details like year, minute, month, etc., in the time.

Python – Datetime

Python datetime module can be used to work with dates and times.

Import Datetime Module

To import datetime module, use the following import statement.

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import datetime

Get Current Time

To get current time, use now() function as shown below.

Python Program

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import datetime

#get current time
x = datetime.datetime.now()

print(x)

Output

2019-09-12 12:18:06.255164

The output contains the current time in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.MICROS which has year, month, day, hour, minute, second and micro-second respectively.

Create Date Object

In datetime module, date is an object. You can create a datetime object by passing year, month, day, hour, minute, second and micro-second as arguments.

The syntax to create a datetime object is:

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datetime.datetime(year, month, day[, hour[, minute[, second[, microsecond[, tzinfo]]]]])

The parameters year, month and day are mandatory while hour, minute, second, microsecond and timezone information tzinfo are optional. The optional parameters are by default 0.

In the following example, you can observe how the default values for the optional parameters take effect.

Python Program

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import datetime

#create datetime object with year, month, day
x = datetime.datetime(2018, 5, 24)
print(x)

#create datetime object with year, month, day, hour
x = datetime.datetime(2018, 5, 24, 5)
print(x)

#create datetime object with year, month, day, hour, minute
x = datetime.datetime(2018, 5, 24, 5, 45)
print(x)

#create datetime object with year, month, day, hour, minute, second
x = datetime.datetime(2018, 5, 24, 5, 45, 34)
print(x)

#create datetime object with year, month, day, hour, minute, second, microsecond
x = datetime.datetime(2018, 5, 24, 5, 45, 34, 542136)
print(x)

Output

2018-05-24 00:00:00
2018-05-24 05:00:00
2018-05-24 05:45:00
2018-05-24 05:45:34
2018-05-24 05:45:34.542136

Conclusion

In this Python Tutorial, we learned about Python datetime library.