Handling Dates and Times in Python with `datetime`

Python's `datetime` module provides classes for working with dates and times. It's a powerful tool for any application that deals with time-sensitive data.

Getting the Current Date and Time

from datetime import datetime, date

# Get the current date and time
now = datetime.now()
print(f"Current datetime: {now}")

# Get the current date only
today = date.today()
print(f"Current date: {today}")

Formatting Dates with `strftime`

The `strftime()` method formats a datetime object into a string based on specific format codes.

from datetime import datetime

now = datetime.now()

# Format codes:
# %Y - Year with century (e.g., 2025)
# %m - Month as a zero-padded decimal number (01-12)
# %d - Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number (01-31)
# %H - Hour (24-hour clock) (00-23)
# %M - Minute (00-59)
# %S - Second (00-61)

formatted_string = now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
print(f"Formatted: {formatted_string}")

Parsing Strings into Dates with `strptime`

The `strptime()` method parses a string representing a date and time and converts it into a datetime object.

from datetime import datetime

date_string = "2025-12-25 14:30:00"

datetime_object = datetime.strptime(date_string, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")

print(f"Parsed object: {datetime_object}")
print(f"Year: {datetime_object.year}")