now() function in Python

Python library defines a function that can be primarily used to get current time and date. now() function Return the current local date and time, which is defined under datetime module.

Syntax : datetime.now(tz)

Parameters :
tz : Specified time zone of which current time and date is required. (Uses Greenwich Meridian time by default.)

Returns : Returns the current date and time in time format.

Code #1 :

# Python3 code to demonstrate
# Getting current time using
# now().

# importing datetime module for now()
import datetime

# using now() to get current time
current_time = datetime.datetime.now()

# Printing value of now.
print ("Time now at greenwich meridian is : "
                                    , end = "")
print (current_time)

Output :

Time now at greenwich meridian is : 2018-03-29 10:26:23.473031

Attributes of now() :

now() has different attributes, same as attributes of time such as year, month, date, hour, minute, second.

Code #2 : Demonstrate attributes of now().

# Python3 code to demonstrate
# attributes of now()

# importing datetime module for now()
import datetime

# using now() to get current time
current_time = datetime.datetime.now()

# Printing attributes of now().
print ("The attributes of now() are : ")

print ("Year : ", end = "")
print (current_time.year)

print ("Month : ", end = "")
print (current_time.month)

print ("Day : ", end = "")
print (current_time.day)

print ("Hour : ", end = "")
print (current_time.hour)

print ("Minute : ", end = "")
print (current_time.minute)

print ("Second : ", end = "")
print (current_time.second)

print ("Microsecond : ", end = "")
print (current_time.microsecond)

The attributes of now() are : 
Year : 2018
Month : 3
Day : 26
Hour : 20
Minute : 9
Second : 4
Microsecond : 499806

Getting time of particular timezone :

Sometimes, the need is just to get the current time of a particular timezone. now() takes timezone as input to give timezone oriented output time. But these time zones are defined in pytz library.

Code #3 : Use of now() to handle specific timezone.

# Python3 code to demonstrate
# attributes of now() for timezone

# for now()
import datetime

# for timezone()
import pytz

# using now() to get current time
current_time = datetime.datetime.now(pytz.timezone('Asia / Calcutta'))

# printing current time in india
print ("The current time in india is : ")
print (current_time)

Output:

The current time in india is : 
2018-03-29 03:09:33.878000+05:30

Note : Above code won’t work on online IDE due to absence of pytz module.

Application :
While developing any real world application, we might need to show real time of any timezone. now() function can do the work here very efficiently and easily.