Python DateTime – DateTime Class

DateTime class of the DateTime module as the name suggests contains information on both dates as well as time. Like a date object, DateTime assumes the current Gregorian calendar extended in both directions; like a time object, DateTime assumes there are exactly 3600*24 seconds in every day. But unlike the date class, the objects of the DateTime class are potentially aware objects i.e. it contains information regarding time zone as well.

Syntax of Python DateTime

The syntax of the Python DateTime class is as follows:

class datetime.datetime(year, month, day, hour=0, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0, tzinfo=None, *, fold=0)

The year, month, and day arguments are mandatory. The tzinfo can be None, and the rest all the attributes must be an integer in the following range:

• MINYEAR(1) <= year <= MAXYEAR(9999)
• 1 <= month <= 12
• 1 <= day <= number of days in the given month and year
• 0 <= hour < 24
• 0 <= minute < 60
• 0 <= second < 60
• 0 <= microsecond < 1000000
• fold in [0, 1]

Note: Passing an argument other than an integer will raise a TypeError and passing arguments outside the range will raise ValueError.

Example: Creating an instance of the DateTime class

Python3

# Python program to
# demonstrate datetime object

from datetime import datetime

# Initializing constructor
a = datetime(2022, 10, 22)
print(a)

# Initializing constructor
# with time parameters as well
a = datetime(2022, 10, 22, 6, 2, 32, 5456)
print(a)

Output:

2022-10-22 00:00:00
2022-10-22 06:02:32.005456

Class Attributes of DateTime

Let’s see the attributes provided by this class:

Attribute Name	Description
min	The minimum representable DateTime
max	The maximum representable DateTime
resolution	The minimum possible difference between datetime objects
year	The range of year must be between MINYEAR and MAXYEAR
month	The range of month must be between 1 and 12
day	The range of days must be between 1 and the number of days in the given month of the given year
hour	The range of hours must be between 0 and 24 (not including 24)
minute	The range of minutes must be between 0 and 60 (not including 60)
second	The range of second must be between 0 and 60 (not including 60)
microsecond	The range of microseconds must be between 0 and 1000000 (not including 1000000)
tzinfo	The object containing timezone information
fold	Represents if the fold has occurred in the time or not

Example: Getting the minimum and maximum representable DateTime object

Python3

from datetime import datetime

# Getting min datetime
mindatetime = datetime.min
print("Min DateTime supported", mindatetime)

# Getting max datetime
maxdatetime = datetime.max
print("Max DateTime supported", maxdatetime)

Output:

Min DateTime supported 0001-01-01 00:00:00
Max DateTime supported 9999-12-31 23:59:59.999999

The now() Method

We can get the current date and time using the now() method of the datetime module.

Python3

from datetime import datetime

# Getting Today's Datetime
today = datetime.now()

# Accessing Attributes
print("Day: ", today.day)
print("Month: ", today.month)
print("Year: ", today.year)
print("Hour: ", today.hour)
print("Minute: ", today.minute)
print("Second: ", today.second)

Output:

Day:  16
Month:  6
Year:  2023
Hour:  5
Minute:  28
Second:  47

DateTime Class Functions

The DateTime class provides various functions to deal with the DateTime objects. We can convert the DateTime object to string and string to DateTime objects, we can also get the weekday for the particular day of the week of the particular month, we can also set the time zone for a particular DateTime object, etc.

List of DateTime Class Methods

Let us see a few methods provided by the DateTime class in Python.

Function Name	Description
astimezone()	Returns the DateTime object containing timezone information.
combine()	Combines the date and time objects and returns a DateTime object
ctime()	Returns a string representation of the date and time
date()	Return the Date class object
fromisoformat()	Returns a datetime object from the string representation of the date and time
fromordinal()	Returns a date object from the proleptic Gregorian ordinal, where January 1 of year 1 has ordinal 1. The hour, minute, second, and microsecond are 0
fromtimestamp()	Return date and time from POSIX timestamp
isocalendar()	Returns a tuple year, week, and weekday
isoformat()	Return the string representation of the date and time
isoweekday()	Returns the day of the week as an integer where Monday is 1 and Sunday is 7
now()	Returns current local date and time with tz parameter
replace()	Changes the specific attributes of the DateTime object
strftime()	Returns a string representation of the DateTime object with the given format
strptime()	Returns a DateTime object corresponding to the date string
time()	Return the Time class object
timetuple()	Returns an object of type time.struct_time
timetz()	Return the Time class object
today()	Return local DateTime with tzinfo as None
toordinal()	Return the proleptic Gregorian ordinal of the date, where January 1 of year 1 has ordinal 1
tzname()	Returns the name of the timezone
utcfromtimestamp()	Return UTC from POSIX timestamp
utcoffset()	Returns the UTC offset
utcnow()	Return current UTC date and time
weekday()	Returns the day of the week as an integer where Monday is 0 and Sunday is 6

Example 1: Getting Today’s Date

Python3

from datetime import datetime

# Getting Today's Datetime
today = datetime.now()
print("Today's date using now() method:", today)

today = datetime.today()
print("Today's date using today() method:", today)

Output:

Today's date using now() method: 2023-06-16 05:30:57.195635
Today's date using today() method: 2023-06-16 05:30:57.196321

Example 2: Getting DateTime from timestamp and ordinal.

Python3

from datetime import datetime

# Getting Datetime from timestamp
date_time = datetime.fromtimestamp(1887639468)
print("Datetime from timestamp:", date_time)

# Getting Datetime from ordinal
date_time = datetime.fromordinal(737994)
print("Datetime from ordinal:", date_time)

Output:

Datetime from timestamp: 2029-10-25 16:17:48
Datetime from ordinal: 2021-07-23 00:00:00

Note: For more information on Python Datetime, refer to Python Datetime Tutorial