Dates and Times in Python

Canonical import statements

import datetime as dt
import time as tm

The following returns the time in seconds since “the Epoch,” January 1, 1970, as a float.

tm.time()

1564433094.291373

The float can be converted to a datetime object.

dtnow = dt.datetime.fromtimestamp(tm.time())
dtnow

datetime.datetime(2019, 7, 29, 13, 44, 54, 302079)

There are several available accessor attributes for datetime objects

dtnow.year, dtnow.month, dtnow.day, dtnow.hour, dtnow.minute, dtnow.second

(2019, 7, 29, 13, 44, 54)

timedelta objects are time durations.

delta = dt.timedelta(days = 100)
delta

datetime.timedelta(days=100)

The today method of dt.date returns the current date as a date, not a datetime.

today = dt.date.today()
today

datetime.date(2019, 7, 29)

Perform math with date and timedelta objects using standard arithmetic operators.

today - delta

datetime.date(2019, 4, 20)