The strftime() function in Python

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The strftime() function in Python is a method of the datetime class that converts a datetime object to a string representation. The method takes a format string as an argument and returns a string representing the date and time in the specified format.

Here’s the basic syntax for using strftime():

datetime_object.strftime(format)

The datetime_object is the datetime object that you want to convert to a string, and the format argument is a string that specifies the format of the output. The format string can include various placeholders (such as %Y for the year, %m for the month, %d for the day, %H for the hour, %M for the minute, %S for the second, etc.) that will be replaced by the appropriate values from the datetime object.

For example, the following code shows how to use strftime() to format a datetime object as a string:

import datetime

now = datetime.datetime.now()
formatted_date = now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
print("Current date and time:", formatted_date)

In this example, the %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S format string is used to display the current date and time in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. The output of the above code might look something like this:

Current date and time: 2023-03-22 14:23:45

There are many other formatting options available in the strftime() function, which you can find in the Python documentation.

Using Python strftime() function along with a predefined timestamp:

You can use the strftime() function in Python to format a predefined timestamp as a string in a particular format.

Here’s an example of how you can do this:

import datetime

# Define a timestamp
timestamp = 1648039378

# Convert the timestamp to a datetime object
datetime_object = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp)

# Format the datetime object as a string in a particular format
formatted_date = datetime_object.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")

# Print the formatted date
print("Formatted date:", formatted_date)

In this example, we first define a timestamp (in this case, 1648039378). We then convert this timestamp to a datetime object using the fromtimestamp() method. Next, we use the strftime() method to format the datetime object as a string in the format specified by the %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S format string. Finally, we print the formatted date.

The output of this code will be:

Formatted date: 2022-03-22 06:56:18

Note that the strftime() function can be used with any datetime object, not just those generated from timestamps.

Using various Format codes with Python strftime() function:

Here are some commonly used format codes that you can use with the Python strftime() function to format a datetime object:

  • %Y: Year with century as a decimal number.
  • %m: Month as a zero-padded decimal number (01-12).
  • %d: Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number (01-31).
  • %H: Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number (00-23).
  • %M: Minute as a zero-padded decimal number (00-59).
  • %S: Second as a zero-padded decimal number (00-59).
  • %f: Microsecond as a decimal number (000000-999999).
  • %a: Weekday abbreviated name (e.g. Mon, Tue, etc.).
  • %A: Weekday full name (e.g. Monday, Tuesday, etc.).
  • %b: Month abbreviated name (e.g. Jan, Feb, etc.).
  • %B: Month full name (e.g. January, February, etc.).
  • %c: Locale’s appropriate date and time representation.
  • %p: AM or PM designation.
  • %z: UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM.
  • %Z: Time zone name (empty string if the object is naive).
  • %j: Day of the year as a zero-padded decimal number (001-366).
  • %U: Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a zero-padded decimal number (00-53).
  • %W: Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a zero-padded decimal number (00-53).
  • %x: Locale’s appropriate date representation.
  • %X: Locale’s appropriate time representation.
  • %%: A literal ‘%’ character.

You can use these format codes in any combination to format a datetime object into a string. For example, the following code formats the current date and time into a string with the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS:

import datetime

now = datetime.datetime.now()
formatted_date = now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
print("Current date and time:", formatted_date)

The output of this code might look something like this:

Current date and time: 2023-03-22 14:23:45

You can find more information about format codes and their usage in the official Python documentation.