.strftime()

meleknurb's avatar
meleknurb's avatar
meleknurb
Published Jan 9, 2025
Contribute to Docs

The datetime.strftime() method formats time and datetime objects into readable strings on specified format codes.

Syntax

datetime.strftime(format)

Here are some commonly used format codes:

Directive Meaning Example
%a Abbreviated name of days Sun, Mon, …, Sat
%d Day of the month 01, 02, …, 31
%b Abbreviated name of months Jan, Feb, …, Dec
%Y Year 0001, 0002, …, 2013, 2014, …, 9998, 9999
%m Month 01, 02, …, 12
%I Hour (12-hour clock) 01, 02, …, 12
%M Minute 00, 01, …, 59
%p Locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM AM, PM

For a complete list, refer to the Python documentation.

Example

The formatted time can be retrieved and stored in a variable as shown in this example:

import datetime


#Assign current time
now = datetime.datetime.now()


#Format the current date and time
formatted_date = now.strftime('%a %d %b %Y, %I:%M%p')


print(formatted_date)

This example results in the following output which displays the current date and time in specific format:

Mon 06 Jan 2025, 09:01PM

Note: The actual output will vary depending on the current date and time when the script is executed.

All contributors

Contribute to Docs

Learn Python on Codecademy