Formatting datetime in python

Question

print str(now.month) + str(now.day) + str(now.year)

Result: 1162014

How do I further format the result to add slashes: 11/6/2014

Also how would I do formatting for hour, minute, and second? hh:mm:ss

Displaying datetime as month/day/year & hours:minutes:seconds:

import datetime
now = datetime.datetime.now()
print datetime.datetime.strftime(now, '%m/%d/%Y')
print datetime.datetime.strftime(now, '%H:%M:%S')

Displaying datetime as month/day/year & hours:minutes:seconds on one line:

import datetime
now = datetime.datetime.now()
print datetime.datetime.strftime(now, '%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S')

special thanks to senshin for the help

Make sure you check the case on your statement for printing the time - lowercase %m means "month", while uppercase %M means "minute". — senshin
– senshin, Commented Jan 16, 2014 at 19:49

senshin · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-16 19:42:45Z

3

Use datetime.strftime(). I assume you meant 1/16/2014, rather than 11/6/2014, given that today is the 16th of January.

>>> import datetime
>>> now = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> datetime.datetime.strftime(now, '%m/%d/%Y')
'01/16/2014'
>>> datetime.datetime.strftime(now, '%H:%M:%S')
'14:18:16'
>>> datetime.datetime.strftime(now, '%I:%M:%S')
'02:18:16'

If for some reason you didn't want to use datetime.strftime(), you could instead do:

>>> print '/'.join(map(str, [now.month, now.day, now.year]))
'1/16/2014'

edited Jan 16, 2014 at 19:42

answered Jan 16, 2014 at 19:18

senshin

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6 Comments

senshin Over a year ago

@user3201139 No, you should also use datetime.strftime for formatting the time part of it! datetime.datetime.strftime(now, '%H:%M:%S'). Or, if you want twelve-hour time, use %I:%M:%S instead.

Xilas Over a year ago

Thank you, ill give it a try right now. Whats the benefit of the first format versus the second format?

senshin Over a year ago

@user3201139 Maintainability, I guess. It's more concise to use datetime.strftime, and that's also considered the standard way of formatting dates in Python. It also gives you more flexibility if you want to change the time format later on.

Xilas Over a year ago

How would I display them on the same line in the form: mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss

senshin Over a year ago

@user3201139 You should read the strftime and strptime docs. For that format, you just put the date and time specifications together. %m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.

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Lucas Gomes · Accepted Answer · 2025-10-14 16:56:17Z

0

Time travel to 2025.

If you're using python 3.11 and 3.12, here's how to do it now:

from datetime import datetime
now = datetime.now()

print(now.year)
print(now.day)
print(now.strftime("%m/%d/%y"))
print(now.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))

answered Oct 14 at 16:56

Lucas Gomes

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