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.