The strftime[] method returns a string representing date and time using date, time or datetime object.
Example 1: datetime to string using strftime[]
The program below converts a datetime object containing current date and time to different string formats.
from datetime import datetime
now = datetime.now[] # current date and time
year = now.strftime["%Y"]
print["year:", year]
month = now.strftime["%m"]
print["month:", month]
day = now.strftime["%d"]
print["day:", day]
time = now.strftime["%H:%M:%S"]
print["time:", time]
date_time = now.strftime["%m/%d/%Y, %H:%M:%S"]
print["date and time:",date_time]
When you run the program, the output will something like be:
year: 2018 month: 12 day: 24 time: 04:59:31 date and time: 12/24/2018, 04:59:31
Here, year, day, time and date_time are strings, whereas now is a datetime object.
How strftime[] works?
In the above program, %Y, %m, %d etc.
are format codes. The strftime[] method takes one or more format codes as an argument and returns a formatted string based on it.
- We imported
datetimeclass from thedatetimemodule. It's because the object ofdatetimeclass can accessstrftime[]method. - The
datetimeobject containing current date and time is stored in now variable. - The
strftime[]method can be used to create formatted strings. - The string you pass to the
strftime[]method may contain more than one format codes.
Example 2: Creating string from a timestamp
from datetime import datetime
timestamp = 1528797322
date_time = datetime.fromtimestamp[timestamp]
print["Date time object:", date_time]
d = date_time.strftime["%m/%d/%Y, %H:%M:%S"]
print["Output 2:", d]
d = date_time.strftime["%d %b, %Y"]
print["Output 3:", d]
d = date_time.strftime["%d %B, %Y"]
print["Output 4:", d]
d = date_time.strftime["%I%p"]
print["Output 5:", d]
When you run the program, the output will be:
Date time object: 2018-06-12 09:55:22 Output 2: 06/12/2018, 09:55:22 Output 3: 12 Jun, 2018 Output 4: 12 June, 2018 Output 5: 09AM
Format Code List
The table below shows all the codes that you can pass to the
strftime[] method.
| Directive | Meaning | Example |
%a
| Abbreviated weekday name. | Sun, Mon, ... |
%A
| Full weekday name. | Sunday, Monday, ... |
%w
| Weekday as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 6 |
%d
| Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal. | 01, 02, ..., 31 |
%-d
| Day of the month as a decimal number. | 1, 2, ..., 30 |
%b
| Abbreviated month name. | Jan, Feb, ..., Dec |
%B
| Full month name. | January, February, ... |
%m
| Month as a zero-padded decimal number. | 01, 02, ..., 12 |
%-m
| Month as a decimal number. | 1, 2, ..., 12 |
%y
| Year without century as a zero-padded decimal number. | 00, 01, ..., 99 |
%-y
| Year without century as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 99 |
%Y
| Year with century as a decimal number. | 2013, 2019 etc. |
%H
| Hour [24-hour clock] as a zero-padded decimal number. | 00, 01, ..., 23 |
%-H
| Hour [24-hour clock] as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 23 |
%I
| Hour [12-hour clock] as a zero-padded decimal number. | 01, 02, ..., 12 |
%-I
| Hour [12-hour clock] as a decimal number. | 1, 2, ... 12 |
%p
| Locale’s AM or PM. | AM, PM |
%M
| Minute as a zero-padded decimal number. | 00, 01, ..., 59 |
%-M
| Minute as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 59 |
%S
| Second as a zero-padded decimal number. | 00, 01, ..., 59 |
%-S
| Second as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 59 |
%f
| Microsecond as a decimal number, zero-padded on the left. | 000000 - 999999 |
%z
| UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM. | |
%Z
| Time zone name. | |
%j
| Day of the year as a zero-padded decimal number. | 001, 002, ..., 366 |
%-j
| Day of the year as a decimal number. | 1, 2, ..., 366 |
%U
| Week number of the year [Sunday as the first day of the week]. All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0. | 00, 01, ..., 53 |
%W
| Week number of the year [Monday as the first day of the week]. All days in a new year preceding the first Monday are considered to be in week 0. | 00, 01, ..., 53 |
%c
| Locale’s appropriate date and time representation. | Mon Sep 30 07:06:05 2013 |
%x
| Locale’s appropriate date representation. | 09/30/13 |
%X
| Locale’s appropriate time representation. | 07:06:05 |
%%
| A literal '%' character. | % |
Example 3: Locale's appropriate date and time
from datetime import datetime
timestamp = 1528797322
date_time = datetime.fromtimestamp[timestamp]
d = date_time.strftime["%c"]
print["Output 1:", d]
d = date_time.strftime["%x"]
print["Output 2:", d]
d = date_time.strftime["%X"]
print["Output 3:", d]
When you run the program, the output will be:
Output 1: Tue Jun 12 09:55:22 2018 Output 2: 06/12/18 Output 3: 09:55:22
Format codes %c, %x and %X are used for locale's appropriate date and time representation.
We also recommend you to check Python strptime[]. The strptime[]
method creates a datetime object from a string.