Python is a powerful programming language widely used in many industries today. In this tutorial, we will be exploring the datetime module in Python.
This module allows you to work with dates and times, which can be helpful for many tasks. We will be discussing some of the most important modules and functions within the datetime module so that you can start using them in your programs. So let’s get started!
Please follow along with the video and the Python Datetime Jupyter Notebook.
Install Pytz
You don’t need to install datetime because it comes with the Python standard library. You do need to install Pytz, however. You can do this with the following command:
!pip install pytzImport Datetime and Pytz
Even though datetime is part of the standard library, we still need to import it. And obviously, we’ll need to import pytz as well.
import datetime
import pytzCreate Dates, Times & Datetimes
Dates, times, and datetimes are moments in time. Dates are just the day component. Times are just the time component. And datetimes include both the day and time component.
date = datetime.date(2019,9,30)
print(date)
time = datetime.time(6,30,9, 123456)
print(time)
dt = datetime.datetime(2019,9,30,6,30,9,123456)
print(dt)
print(type(date))
print(type(time))
print(type(datetime))2019-09-30
06:30:09.123456
2019-09-30 06:30:09.123456
<class 'datetime.date'>
<class 'datetime.time'>
<class 'module'>today = datetime.date.today()
print(today)
now = datetime.datetime.now()
print(now)2022-01-07
2022-01-07 11:12:52.071975Create Datetimes from Strings
We can create parse strings to create datetimes using strptime.
datetime_string = "10 10 2021 13:37:00"
parsed_time = datetime.datetime.strptime(datetime_string, '%m %d %Y %X')
print(parsed_time)
datetime_string = "Thursday, December 20, 21 1:37 PM"
more_complex = datetime.datetime.strptime(datetime_string,
'%A, %B %d, %y %I:%M %p')
print(type(more_complex))
print(more_complex)2021-10-10 13:37:00
<class 'datetime.datetime'>
2021-12-20 13:37:00Create Timedeltas
Timedeltas are durations in time. We can add and subtract timedeltas from dates and add and subtract timedeltas from other timedeltas.
Create Timedeltas
Timedeltas are durations in time. We can add and subtract timedeltas from dates and add and subtract timedeltas from other timedeltas.
from datetime import timedelta
daysdelta = datetime.timedelta(days=5)
future = now + daysdelta
print(future)
daysdelta = datetime.timedelta(days=-5)
past = now + daysdelta
print(past)
alldelta = timedelta(days=1,
seconds=1,
milliseconds=1,
minutes=1,
hours=1,
weeks=1)
print(alldelta)
future = now + alldelta
print(future)2022-01-12 11:12:52.071975
2022-01-02 11:12:52.071975
8 days, 1:01:01.001000
2022-01-15 12:13:53.072975
daysdelta - alldelta
datetime.timedelta(days=-14, seconds=82738, microseconds=999000)Accessing Datetime & Timedelta Attributes
Discovering and accessing datetime and timedelta attributes is easy.
print(dir(now)[-40:]) # shortend for display purposes
print(now.min)
print(dir(alldelta)[-7:])
print(alldelta.days)['astimezone', 'combine', 'ctime', 'date', 'day', 'dst', 'fold', 'fromisocalendar',
'fromisoformat', 'fromordinal', 'fromtimestamp', 'hour', 'isocalendar', 'isoformat',
'isoweekday', 'max', 'microsecond', 'min', 'minute', 'month', 'now', 'replace', 'resolution',
'second', 'strftime', 'strptime', 'time', 'timestamp', 'timetuple', 'timetz', 'today', 'toordinal',
'tzinfo', 'tzname', 'utcfromtimestamp', 'utcnow', 'utcoffset', 'utctimetuple', 'weekday', 'year']
0001-01-01 00:00:00
['days', 'max', 'microseconds', 'min', 'resolution', 'seconds', 'total_seconds']
8Adding Timezones to Datetimes using Pytz
Adding timezones using pytz is also easy. We need to add a timezone when creating our datetime or replace the timezone on an existing datetime.
now.tzinfo == None
True
now = datetime.datetime.now(tz=pytz.UTC)
print(now)
dt_utc = datetime.datetime(2021,10,10,9,30,6,123456, tzinfo=pytz.UTC)
print(dt_utc)
dt_utc
2022-01-07 16:33:43.540085+00:00
2021-10-10 09:30:06.123456+00:00
datetime.datetime(2021, 10, 10, 9, 30, 6, 123456, tzinfo=<UTC>)
print(now)
now = datetime.datetime.now().replace(tzinfo=pytz.timezone('America/New_York'))
print(now)
2022-01-07 16:33:43.540085+00:00
2022-01-07 11:34:49.651145-04:56
Get a List of All Pytz Timezones
If you’re unsure what timezones are available using Pytz, you can use common_timezones and all_timezones to identify your options.
print(pytz.all_timezones)['Africa/Abidjan', 'Africa/Accra', 'Africa/Addis_Ababa', 'Africa/Algiers', 'Africa/Asmara', 'Africa/Asmera',
'Africa/Bamako', 'Africa/Bangui', 'Africa/Banjul', 'Africa/Bissau', 'Africa/Blantyre', 'Africa/Brazzaville',
'Africa/Bujumbura', 'Africa/Cairo', 'Africa/Casablanca', 'Africa/Ceuta', 'Africa/Conakry', 'Africa/Dakar',
'Africa/Dar_es_Salaam', 'Africa/Djibouti', 'Africa/Douala', 'Africa/El_Aaiun', 'Africa/Freetown', 'Africa/Gaborone'
'Africa/Harare', 'Africa/Johannesburg', 'Africa/Juba', 'Africa/Kampala', 'Africa/Khartoum', 'Africa/Kigali', ... ]