The object of the Date class represents the naive date containing year, month, and date according to the current Gregorian calendar. This date can be extended indefinitely in both directions. The January 1 of year 1 is called day 1 and January 2 or year 2 is called day 2 and so on.
Syntax:
class datetime.date(year, month, day)
The arguments must be in the following range –
- MINYEAR(1) <= year <= MAXYEAR(9999)
- 1 <= month <= 12
- 1 <= day <= number of days in the given month and year
Note: If the argument is not an integer it will raise a TypeError and if it is outside the range a ValueError will be raised.
Example:
Python3
# Python program to# demonstrate date class# import the date classfrom datetime import date# initializing constructor# and passing arguments in the# format year, month, datemy_date = date(2020, 12, 11)print("Date passed as argument is", my_date)# Uncommenting my_date = date(1996, 12, 39)# will raise an ValueError as it is# outside range# uncommenting my_date = date('1996', 12, 11)# will raise a TypeError as a string is# passed instead of integer |
Date passed as argument is 2020-12-11
Class Attributes
Let’s see the attributes provided by this class –
| Attribute Name | Description |
|---|---|
| min | The minimum representable date |
| max | The maximum representable date |
| resolution | The minimum possible difference between date objects |
| year | The range of year must be between MINYEAR and MAXYEAR |
| month | The range of month must be between 1 and 12 |
| day | The range of day must be between 1 and number of days in the given month of the given year |
Example 1: Getting min and max representable date
Python3
from datetime import date# Getting min datemindate = date.minprint("Min Date supported", mindate)# Getting max datemaxdate = date.maxprint("Max Date supported", maxdate) |
Min Date supported 0001-01-01 Max Date supported 9999-12-31
Example 2: Accessing the year, month, and date attribute from the date class
Python3
from datetime import date# creating the date objectDate = date(2020, 12, 11)# Accessing the attributesprint("Year:", Date.year)print("Month:", Date.month)print("Day:", Date.day) |
Year: 2020 Month: 12 Day: 11
Class Functions
Date class provides various functions to work with date object, like we can get the today’s date, date from the current timestamp, date from the proleptic Gregorian ordinal, where January 1 of year 1 has ordinal 1, etc. Let’s see the list of all the functions provided by this class –
List of all Date Class functions
| Function Name | Description |
|---|---|
| ctime() | Return a string representing the date |
| fromisocalendar() | Returns a date corresponding to the ISO calendar |
| fromisoformat() | Returns a date object from the string representation of the date |
| fromordinal() | Returns a date object from the proleptic Gregorian ordinal, where January 1 of year 1 has ordinal 1 |
| fromtimestamp() | Returns a date object from the POSIX timestamp |
| isocalendar() | Returns a tuple year, week, and weekday |
| isoformat() | Returns the string representation of the date |
| isoweekday() | Returns the day of the week as integer where Monday is 1 and Sunday is 7 |
| replace() | Changes the value of the date object with the given parameter |
| strftime() | Returns a string representation of the date with the given format |
| timetuple() | Returns an object of type time.struct_time |
| today() | Returns the current local date |
| toordinal() | Return the proleptic Gregorian ordinal of the date, where January 1 of year 1 has ordinal 1 |
| weekday() | Returns the day of the week as integer where Monday is 0 and Sunday is 6 |
Let’s see certain examples of the above functions
Example 1: Getting the current date and also change the date to string
Python3
# Python program to# print current datefrom datetime import date# calling the today# function of date classtoday = date.today()print("Today's date is", today)# Converting the date to the stringStr = date.isoformat(today)print("String Representation", Str)print(type(Str)) |
Today's date is 2021-07-23 String Representation 2021-07-23 <class 'str'>
Example 2: Getting the weekday from the day and proleptic Gregorian ordinal
Python3
# Python program to# print current datefrom datetime import date# calling the today# function of date classtoday = date.today()# Getting Weekday using weekday() # methodprint("Weekday using weekday():", today.weekday())# Getting Weekday using isoweekday()# methodprint("Weekday using isoweekday():", today.isoweekday())# Getting the proleptic Gregorian # ordinalprint("proleptic Gregorian ordinal:", today.toordinal())# Getting the date from the ordinalprint("Date from ordinal", date.fromordinal(737000)) |
Weekday using weekday(): 4 Weekday using isoweekday(): 5 proleptic Gregorian ordinal: 737994 Date from ordinal 2018-11-02
Note: For more information on Python Datetime, refer to Python Datetime Tutorial
