Getting Formatted Datetime In Python Like In Php

How to get formatted date time in Python the same way as in PHP date('M d Y', $timestamp);?

Solution 1:

>>>import time>>>timestamp = 1284375159>>>time.strftime("%m %d %Y",time.localtime(timestamp))
'09 13 2010'

Solution 2:

You can use a suitable strftime function. Here is an example using datetime objects.

>>>from datetime import datetime>>>today = datetime.today()>>>today.strftime("%m %d %Y")
'09 13 2010'

Solution 3:

The date, datetime, and time objects all support a strftime(format) method, to create a string representing the time under the control of an explicit format string.

Here is a list of the format codes with their directive and meaning.

%a  Locale’s abbreviated weekday name.
    %A  Locale’s full weekday name.      
    %b  Locale’s abbreviated month name.     
    %B  Locale’s fullmonth name.
    %c  Locale’s appropriate dateandtime representation.   
    %d  Dayof the monthas a decimal number [01,31].    
    %f  Microsecond as a decimal number [0,999999], zero-padded on the left%H  Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number [00,23].    
    %I  Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number [01,12].    
    %j  Dayof the yearas a decimal number [001,366].   
    %m  Monthas a decimal number [01,12].   
    %M  Minuteas a decimal number [00,59].      
    %p  Locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM.
    %S  Secondas a decimal number [00,61].
    %U  Week number of the year (Sunday as the firstdayof the week)
    %w  Weekday as a decimal number [0(Sunday),6].   
    %W  Week number of the year (Monday as the firstdayof the week)
    %x  Locale’s appropriate date representation.    
    %X  Locale’s appropriate time representation.    
    %y  Yearwithout century as a decimal number [00,99].    
    %Y  Yearwith century as a decimal number.   
    %z  UTC offsetin the form +HHMM or-HHMM.
    %Z  Time zone name (empty string if the object is naive).    
    %%  A literal '%' character.

This is what we can do with the datetime and time modules in Python

    import time
    import datetime

    print"Time in seconds since the epoch: %s" %time.time()
    print"Current date and time: " , datetime.datetime.now()
    print"Or like this: " ,datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%y-%m-%d-%H-%M")


    print"Current year: ", datetime.date.today().strftime("%Y")
    print"Month of year: ", datetime.date.today().strftime("%B")
    print"Week number of the year: ", datetime.date.today().strftime("%W")
    print"Weekday of the week: ", datetime.date.today().strftime("%w")
    print"Day of year: ", datetime.date.today().strftime("%j")
    print"Day of the month : ", datetime.date.today().strftime("%d")
    print"Day of week: ", datetime.date.today().strftime("%A")

That will print out something like this:

Timein seconds since the epoch:    1349271346.46Currentdateandtime:              2012-10-0315:35:46.461491Orlike this:                       12-10-03-15-35Currentyear:                       2012Monthofyear:                      October
    Week number of the year:            40
    Weekday of the week:                3Dayofyear:                        277Dayof the month :                  03Dayof week:                        Wednesday

Solution 4:

Way back in 2003, Simon Willison wrote DateFormat, a little date format translation class which enables php-style date format strings in Python:

>>>from datetime import datetime>>>from DateFormat import DateFormat>>>timestamp = 1354633606>>>df = DateFormat(datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp))>>>df.format('M d Y')
'Dec 04 2012'

DateFormat is available here: http://simonwillison.net/2003/oct/7/dateinpython/