Let’s see how to convert a datetime into a string in Python.
This conversion can be done using the strftime()
method from the datetime
class.
This example shows a few different formats for current date and time:
- Default date and time
- Date with a format I defined
- Time with a format I defined
- Date and time with a format I defined
from datetime import datetime
current_date = datetime.now()
print(current_date)
print(current_date.strftime('%m/%d/%Y'))
print(current_date.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))
print(current_date.strftime('%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y'))
2020-04-25 23:21:12.578367
04/25/2020
23:22:21
Sat Apr 25 23:22:21 2020
The format codes used are:
- %a: Weekday as locale’s abbreviated name.
- %b: Month as locale’s abbreviated name.
- %m: Month as a zero-padded decimal number.
- %d: Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number.
- %Y: Year with century as a decimal number.
- %H: Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.
- %M: Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.
- %S: Second as a zero-padded decimal number.
You can check the official documentation for other Format Codes to convert to different formats.