Python dates/times

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Notes:

  • If you’re trying to time your script, use datetime

Also see:

Get the current time

datetime.datetime.now()
time.localtime()

Convert unix/epoch time to datetime object

import datetime
some_time = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(unix_time)

Convert datetime object to unix/epoch time

import time
time.mktime(some_time.timetuple())

(where some_time is the datetime object)

Convert timestamp string to datetime object

import datetime
date = '20100319'

# python < 2.5 doesn't have datetime.datetime.strptime()
if sys.version_info < (2, 5):
    import time
    somedate = datetime.datetime(*(time.strptime(date, '%Y%m%d')[0:6]))
else:
    somedate = datetime.datetime.strptime(date, '%Y%m%d')

print(dt.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'))
'2013-08-16 15:01:26'

Differences between datetime and time:

datetime:

  • Has microseconds (time doesn’t)
  • The difference between datetime objects can be calculated

time:

  • Can tell time zone (datetime can’t?)