To format human-readable time, we have a number of functions in
the time module, and methods of a
datetime object. Here are the functions in the
time module.
-
time.strftime (
format
,
struct
) → string
-
Convert a struct_time to a string
according to a format specification. The specification rules are
provided below.
This is an example of how to produce a timestamp with the
fewest implicit assumptions.
time.strftime( "%x %X", time.localtime( time.time() ) )
This line of code shows a standardized and portable way to
produce a time stamp. The time.time function
produces the current time in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
Time is represented as a floating point number of seconds after an
epoch.
-
time.asctime
(
struct
) → string
-
Convert a struct_time to a string,
e.g. 'Sat Jun 06 16:26:11 1998'. This is the same as a the format
string "%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y".
-
time.ctime (
seconds
)
→ string
-
Convert a time in seconds since the Epoch to a string in
local time. This is equivalent to
asctime(localtime(seconds)).
A datetime object has the following methods
for producting formatted output. In the following definitions,
dt is a datetime
object.
-
dt.
isoformat(
separator
)
→ string
-
Return string representing this date in ISO 8601 standard
format. The
separator
string is used
between the date and the time.
-
dt.
ctime →
string
-
Return string representing this date and time. This is
equivalent to
time.ctime(time.mktime(
dt
.timetuple())).
-
dt.
strftime(
format
)
→ string
-
Return string representing this date and time, formatted
using the given format string. This is equivalent to
time.strftime(
format
,
time.mktime(
dt.
timetuple() )
).
The strftime and
strptime functions use the following formatting
symbols to convert between 9-tuples and strings. Formatting symbols like
%c, %x and %X
produce standard formats for whole date-time stamps, dates or time.
Other symbols format parts of the date or time value. The following
examples show a particular date (Satuday, August 4th) formatted with
each of the formatting strings.
| %a |
Locale's 3-letter abbreviated weekday name. |
"Sat" |
| %A |
Locale's full weekday name. |
"Saturday" |
| %b |
Locale's 3-letter abbreviated month name. |
"Aug" |
| %B |
Locale's full month name. |
"August" |
| %c |
Locale's appropriate full date and time representation. |
"Saturday August 04 17:11:20 2001" |
| %d |
Day of the month as a 2-digit decimal number. |
"04" |
| %H |
Hour (24-hour clock) as a 2-digit decimal number. |
"17" |
| %I |
Hour (12-hour clock) as a 2-digit decimal number. |
"05" |
| %j |
Day of the year as a 3-digit decimal number. |
"216" |
| %m |
Month as a 2-digit decimal number. |
"08" |
| %M |
Minute as a 2-digit decimal number. |
"11" |
| %p |
Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM. |
"pm" |
| %S |
Second as a 2-digit decimal number. |
"20" |
| %U |
Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week)
as a 2-digit decimal number. All days in a new year preceding the
first Sunday are considered to be in week 0. |
"30" |
| %w |
Weekday as a decimal number, 0 = Sunday. |
"6" |
| %W |
Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week)
as a 2-digit decimal number. All days in a new year preceding the
first Monday are considered to be in week 0. |
"31" |
| %x |
Locale's appropriate date representation. |
"Saturday August 04 2001" |
| %X |
Locale's appropriate time representation. |
"17:11:20" |
| %y |
Year without century as a 2-digit decimal number. |
"01" |
| %Y |
Year with century as a decimal number. |
"2001" |
| %Z |
Time zone name (or '' if no time zone exists). |
"" |
| %% |
A literal '%' character. |
"%" |
