Dates

Python has a built-in module called datetime that can be used to create and modify datetime objects.

Because the module comes built-in with Python, installation is not required, but we do need to import it at the top of a Python file.

Syntax

import datetime

Creating datetime Objects

The datetime module has three main types available:

  • date: Returns a date in the year-month-day format.
  • time: Returns a time in the hour-minute-second format with optional microsecond and timezone information.
  • datetime: Returns a date and time in the year-month-day and hour-minute-second formats.

Durations between any of these types can be returned by the .timedelta() method.

Dates

.datetime.now()
Returns the current date and timestamp.
.datetime()
Returns a new object with date and time properties.
.time()
Returns the seconds elapsed since the epoch.
datetime.date()
Returns a date object in the year-month-day format.
datetime.timedelta()
Returns a duration, resolved to microseconds, that occurs between dates, times, and datetimes.

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