Python Current Date and Time

In this article, you will learn how to use Python to get today's date and the current date and time. We will also use the strftime() method to format the date and time in different formats.

There are multiple ways to get the current date. We will usedatetimethe date class of the module to complete this task.

Example1Python to get today's date

from datetime import date
today = date.today()
print("Today's date:", today)

Output result:

Today's date:　2020-04-13

Here, we import the date class from the datetime module. Then, we use the date.today() method to get the current local date.

By the way, date.today() returns a date object, which is assigned toTodayvariable. Now, you can usestrftime()Method creates a string representing the date in a different format.

Example2: Current date in different formats

from datetime import date
today = date.today()
# dd/mm/YY
d1　= today.strftime("%d/%m/%Y
print("d1　=", d1)
# Textual month, day, and year	
d2　= today.strftime("%B %d, %Y"
print("d2　=", d2)
# mm/dd/y
d3　= today.strftime("%m/%d/%y
print("d3　=", d3)
# Abbreviation of the month, date, and year	
d4　= today.strftime("%b-%d-%Y
print("d4　=", d4)

When you run the program, the output will be similar to:

d1　=　16/09/2019
d2　= September　16,　2019
d3　= 09/16/19
d4　= Sep-16-2019

If you need to get the current date and time, you can use the datetime module's datetime class.

Example3: Get the current date and time

from datetime import datetime
# datetime object containing the current date and time
now = datetime.now()
　
print("now =", now)
# dd/mm/YY H:M:S
dt_string = now.strftime("%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S)
print("date and time =", dt_string)

Here, we are accustomed to using datetime.now() to get the current date and time. Then, we use strftime() to create a string representing the date and time in a different format.