Python 5c - Time & Date
ctime()
The easiest way to state the current time and date is to use the ctime() command.
Remember to import the ctime command from the time library before you use and print it:
This will print the time and date, but it looks rather unprofessional, and the exact format depends on the type of system that you are currently running so it may vary for different users. It may seem like this:
If you just want to print the current time and date and you are not fussed about how it looks then you can use the ctime() command easily within your programs. An example:
Practice Task 1
Like the dentist example above, create a simple program that greets a user with the date and time.
Example solution:
strftime()
If you want to customise which aspects of the date and time that you want to display then you can use the strftime() command.
This command requires a directive to be written with a percentage symbol as a string in the brackets.
For example, the current hour, minute and second is printed like this:
There are many different directives that you can use to display exactly what you are looking for, such as:
You can show more than one directive in the same strftime() command.
The following example shows an improved dentist surgery program that now displays the current hour in 12-hour clock (%I), the current minute (%M) and whether it is AM or PM (%p):
The following directives can be used with strftime(). Don't forget the speech marks.
Date -
Weekday:
%a – Current day of the week abbreviated (e.g. Sun, Mon)
%A – Current day of the week in full (e.g. Sunday, Monday)
%w – Current day of the week in chronological order (0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday)
%W – Current week number (e.g. 01, 26, 52)
Month:
%d – Current day of the month (e.g. 01, 11, 31)
%m – Current month as a number (e.g. 01, 06, 12)
%b – Current month abbreviated (e.g. Jan, Jun, Dec)
%B – Current month in full (e.g. January, December)
Year:
%y – Current year abbreviated (e.g. 16, 17)
%Y – Current year in full (e.g. 2016, 2017)
%j – Current day of the year (e.g. 001, 150, 365)
Time -
Hour:
%H – Current hour in 24-hour clock (e.g. 00, 12, 20)
%I – Current hour in 12-hour clock (e.g. 01, 08, 12)
%p – Whether it is currently AM or PM
Minute:
%M – Current minute (e.g. 00, 30, 59)
Second:
%S – Current second (e.g. 00, 30, 59)
More Directives -
%z – Current time difference from UTC (Co-ordinated Universal Time) (e.g. +0000, -0500, +1100)
%Z – Current time zone (e.g. GMT Standard Time, EST, CST)
Just looking for a quick date or time display and not bothered about customisation? Try these:
%c – Current date and time in full (e.g. Tue Feb 19 13:35:20 2016)
%x – Current date (e.g. 19/02/16)
%X – Current time (13:36:20)
Practice Task 2
Use the different directives to print a range of statements including the current day, month and year.
Example solution:
Between Dates
You may want to work out the number of days between two dates. This can be done by importing the date command from the timedate library. Below is a simple example:
Make sure the date is entered in the format of year, month, day.
The .days code removes the difference in hours and seconds to just display the number of days difference.
The code here will check the current year, month and day and organise it into the date format.
This can then be used together with code similar to the program above to check the number of days between one specific date and the current date.
Practice Task 3
Calculate the number of days that the user has been alive for.
Ask the user the year, month and date they were born and find the difference between that date and today's date.
Example solution:
