Basic date and time types in Python

Date and Time

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 full month name.
%c Locale’s appropriate date and time representation. 
%d Day of the month as 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 Day of the year as a decimal number [001,366]. 
%m Month as a decimal number [01,12]. 
%M Minute as a decimal number [00,59]. 
%p Locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM.
%S Second as a decimal number [00,61].
%U Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week)
%w Weekday as a decimal number [0(Sunday),6]. 
%W Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week)
%x Locale’s appropriate date representation. 
%X Locale’s appropriate time representation. 
%y Year without century as a decimal number [00,99]. 
%Y Year with century as a decimal number. 
%z UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM.
%Z Time zone name (empty string if the object is naive). 
%% A literal '%' character.

strftime() vs strptime()

strptime() – String “Parse” Time – used to convert a string to a Date/Time object. Use this to parse a date string into a Date/Time object.

strftime() – String “Format” Time – used to format a Date object. Use this when you want to format a date.

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