Dates Module

Python doesn't have a date datatype but has the module datetime that can be used to manipulate dates and times.

Displaying Current Date and Time

To display the current date and time:

import datetime
            x = datetime.datetime.now()
            print(x)

Output:

2024-07-25 16:51:41.083945

The `datetime` object contains year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and microsecond attributes.

To access specific components of the current date:

import datetime
            x = datetime.datetime.now()
            print(x.year)
            print(x.strftime("%A"))

Output:

2024
            Thursday

To create a specific date:

import datetime
            x = datetime.datetime(2024, 7, 25)
            print(x)

Output:

2024-07-25 00:00:00

The `datetime()` constructor can also take optional parameters for time and timezone.

The `strftime()` method formats `datetime` objects into readable strings using format codes:

import datetime
            x = datetime.datetime(2023, 7, 12)
            print(x.strftime("%Y"))  # Year

Output:

Here are some commonly used format codes:

Directive	Description	Example
%a	Weekday, short version	Wed
%A	Weekday, full version	Wednesday
%w	Weekday as a number 0-6, 0 is Sunday	3
%d	Day of month 01-31	31
%b	Month name, short version	Dec
%B	Month name, full version	December
%m	Month as a number 01-12	12
%y	Year, short version, without century	18
%Y	Year, full version	2018
%H	Hour 00-23	17
%I	Hour 00-12	05
%p	AM/PM	PM
%M	Minute 00-59	41
%S	Second 00-59	08
%f	Microsecond 000000-999999	548513
%z	UTC offset	+0100
%Z	Timezone	CST
%j	Day number of year 001-366	365
%U	Week number of year, Sunday as the first day of week, 00-53	52
%W	Week number of year, Monday as the first day of week, 00-53	52
%c	Local version of date and time	Mon Dec 31 17:41:00 2018
%C	Century	20
%x	Local version of date	12/31/18
%X	Local version of time	17:41:00
%%	A % character	%
%G	ISO 8601 year	2018
%u	ISO 8601 weekday (1-7)	1
%V	ISO 8601 weeknumber (01-53)	01

These format codes can be combined to represent various aspects of a date and time.