In this article, we will see how to format date using strftime() in Python. localtime() and gmtime() returns a tuple representing a time and this tuple is converted into a string as specified by the format argument using python time method strftime().
Syntax:
time.strftime(format[, sec])
sec: This is the time in number of seconds to be formatted.
format: This is the directive or format code which would be used to format.
| Directive or format code | Returned Valued | Example |
|---|---|---|
| %Y | Full year with century | 2021,2022 |
| %y | Year without century with zero padded value | 00,01,….21,22…,99 |
| %-y | Year without century | 0,1…,99 |
| %m | Month with zero padded value | 01-12 |
| %-m | Month without zero padded value | 1-12 |
| %B | Full month name | January, February,…, December |
| %b | Short form of month | Jan, Feb,…,Dec |
| %A | Full weekday name | Sunday, Monday,.. |
| %a | Short form of weekday name | Sun, Mon,.. |
| %w | Weekday as decimal value | 0-6 |
| %d | Days with zero padded value | 01-31 |
| %-d | Days with decimal value | 1-31 |
| %H | Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded value. | 00-23 |
| %-H | Hour (24-hour clock) without zero-padded value. | 0,1,…,23 |
| %I | Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded value. | 01-12 |
| %-I | Hour (12-hour clock) without zero-padded value. | 1-12 |
| %M | Mins with zero-padded | 00-59 |
| %-M | Mins without zero padded value | 0-59 |
| %S | Secs with zero padded value | 00-59 |
| %-S | Secs without zero padded value | 0-59 |
| %f | Micro Secs with zero-padded value | 000000 – 999999 |
| %p | Locale’s AM or PM. | AM/PM |
| %j | Day of the year with zero padded value | 001-366 |
| %-j | Day of the year without zero padded value | 1-366 |
| %z | UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM. | |
| %Z | Time zone name. | |
| %C | Locale’s appropriate date and time | Fri Apr 02 02:09:07 2020 |
| %x | Locale’s appropriate date | 02/04/22 |
| %X | Locale’s appropriate time | 02:04:22 |
| %W | Week number of the year. Monday as first day of week | 00-53 |
| %U | Week number of the year. Sunday as first day of week | 00-53 |
Below are some examples for better understanding.
Example 1:
Python3
from datetime import datetime# current time and date# datetime objecttime = datetime.now()print("Without formatting:", time)# formatting date using strftimeprint("After formatting:", time.strftime("%b %d, %Y")) |
Output
Without formatting: 2022-11-29 12:59:08.088819 After formatting: Nov 29, 2022
Output:
Example 2:
Python3
from datetime import datetime# current time and date# datetime objecttime = datetime.now()print("Without formatting:", time)# formatting date using strftimeprint("Year", time.strftime("%Y"))print("Month name", time.strftime("%B"))print("Day", time.strftime("%d")) |
Output:
Example 3:
Python3
from datetime import datetime# current time and date# datetime objecttime = datetime.now()# formatting date using strftime# format = MM/DD/YYprint(time.strftime("%m/%d/%y"))# format = Month D, Yrprint(time.strftime("%B %d, %Y"))# time formatting# HH:MM:SSprint(time.strftime("%H:%M:%S")) |
Output:
