datetime — Date and Time

The datetime module provides classes for working with dates, times, and time intervals.

from datetime import datetime, date, time, timedelta

Current Date and Time

from datetime import datetime, date

now = datetime.now()
print(now)  # 2024-01-15 10:30:45.123456

today = date.today()
print(today)  # 2024-01-15

# UTC time
utc_now = datetime.utcnow()

Creating Date/Time Objects

from datetime import datetime, date, time

# Specific date
d = date(2024, 1, 15)

# Specific time
t = time(10, 30, 45)

# Specific datetime
dt = datetime(2024, 1, 15, 10, 30, 45)

# Access components
print(dt.year)    # 2024
print(dt.month)   # 1
print(dt.day)     # 15
print(dt.hour)    # 10
print(dt.minute)  # 30
print(dt.second)  # 45
print(dt.weekday())  # 0 (Monday) - 6 (Sunday)

Formatting (datetime → string)

from datetime import datetime

now = datetime.now()

# strftime — format to string
print(now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d"))          # 2024-01-15
print(now.strftime("%d/%m/%Y %H:%M"))   # 15/01/2024 10:30
print(now.strftime("%B %d, %Y"))         # January 15, 2024
print(now.strftime("%I:%M %p"))          # 10:30 AM

# ISO format
print(now.isoformat())  # 2024-01-15T10:30:45.123456

Parsing (string → datetime)

from datetime import datetime

# strptime — parse from string
dt = datetime.strptime("2024-01-15", "%Y-%m-%d")
dt = datetime.strptime("15/01/2024 10:30", "%d/%m/%Y %H:%M")

# ISO format
dt = datetime.fromisoformat("2024-01-15T10:30:00")

Time Differences (timedelta)

from datetime import datetime, timedelta

now = datetime.now()

# Add/subtract time
tomorrow = now + timedelta(days=1)
last_week = now - timedelta(weeks=1)
two_hours_later = now + timedelta(hours=2)

# Difference between dates
birthday = datetime(1990, 6, 15)
age = now - birthday
print(age.days)  # Number of days since birthday

# Create timedelta
delta = timedelta(days=5, hours=3, minutes=30)
print(delta.total_seconds())  # Total seconds

Format Codes

Common Pitfalls

• Timezone-naive vs aware — datetime.now() is naive (no timezone info)
• Month is 1-indexed — January = 1, not 0
• strptime is slow — for bulk parsing consider dateutil.parser
• Mutable dates — date and datetime are immutable, you must create new objects

Tip

For serious timezone handling, use zoneinfo (Python 3.9+) or the pytz library.

Official Documentation

datetime — Basic date and time types

API Reference

Classes

Important datetime/date Methods