Is there a nicer way than the following to return today’s date in the YYYY-MM-DD format?
str(datetime.datetime.today()).split()[0]
Answers:
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Method 1
Use strftime:
>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> datetime.today().strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
'2021-01-26'
To also include a zero-padded Hour:Minute:Second at the end:
>>> datetime.today().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
'2021-01-26 16:50:03'
Method 2
You can use datetime.date.today() and convert the resulting datetime.date object to a string:
from datetime import date today = str(date.today()) print(today) # '2017-12-26'
Method 3
I always use the isoformat() method for this.
from datetime import date today = date.today().isoformat() print(today) # '2018-12-05'
Note that this also works on datetime objects if you need the time in the standard ISO 8601 format as well.
from datetime import datetime now = datetime.today().isoformat() print(now) # '2018-12-05T11:15:55.126382'
Method 4
Datetime is just lovely if you like remembering funny codes. Wouldn’t you prefer simplicity?
>>> import arrow
>>> arrow.now().format('YYYY-MM-DD')
'2017-02-17'
This module is clever enough to understand what you mean.
Just do pip install arrow.
Addendum: In answer to those who become exercised over this answer let me just say that arrow represents one of the alternative approaches to dealing with dates in Python. That’s mostly what I meant to suggest.
Method 5
Very late answer, but you can simply use:
import time
today = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
# 2022-01-30
Method 6
Are you working with Pandas?
You can use pd.to_datetime from the pandas library. Here are various options, depending on what you want returned.
import pandas as pd
pd.to_datetime('today') # pd.to_datetime('now')
# Timestamp('2019-03-27 00:00:10.958567')
As a python datetime object,
pd.to_datetime('today').to_pydatetime()
# datetime.datetime(2019, 4, 18, 3, 50, 42, 587629)
As a formatted date string,
pd.to_datetime('today').isoformat()
# '2019-04-18T04:03:32.493337'
# Or, `strftime` for custom formats.
pd.to_datetime('today').strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
# '2019-03-27'
To get just the date from the timestamp, call Timestamp.date.
pd.to_datetime('today').date()
# datetime.date(2019, 3, 27)
Aside from to_datetime, you can directly instantiate a Timestamp object using,
pd.Timestamp('today') # pd.Timestamp('now')
# Timestamp('2019-04-18 03:43:33.233093')
pd.Timestamp('today').to_pydatetime()
# datetime.datetime(2019, 4, 18, 3, 53, 46, 220068)
If you want to make your Timestamp timezone aware, pass a timezone to the tz argument.
pd.Timestamp('now', tz='America/Los_Angeles')
# Timestamp('2019-04-18 03:59:02.647819-0700', tz='America/Los_Angeles')
Yet another date parser library: Pendulum
This one’s good, I promise.
If you’re working with pendulum, there are some interesting choices. You can get the current timestamp using now() or today’s date using today().
import pendulum
pendulum.now()
# DateTime(2019, 3, 27, 0, 2, 41, 452264, tzinfo=Timezone('America/Los_Angeles'))
pendulum.today()
# DateTime(2019, 3, 27, 0, 0, 0, tzinfo=Timezone('America/Los_Angeles'))
Additionally, you can also get tomorrow() or yesterday()‘s date directly without having to do any additional timedelta arithmetic.
pendulum.yesterday()
# DateTime(2019, 3, 26, 0, 0, 0, tzinfo=Timezone('America/Los_Angeles'))
pendulum.tomorrow()
# DateTime(2019, 3, 28, 0, 0, 0, tzinfo=Timezone('America/Los_Angeles'))
There are various formatting options available.
pendulum.now().to_date_string() # '2019-03-27' pendulum.now().to_formatted_date_string() # 'Mar 27, 2019' pendulum.now().to_day_datetime_string() # 'Wed, Mar 27, 2019 12:04 AM'
Rationale for this answer
A lot of pandas users stumble upon this question because they believe it is a python question more than a pandas one. This answer aims to be useful to folks who are already using these libraries and would be interested to know that there are ways to achieve these results within the scope of the library itself.
If you are not working with pandas or pendulum already, I definitely do not recommend installing them just for the sake of running this code! These libraries are heavy and come with a lot of plumbing under the hood. It is not worth the trouble when you can use the standard library instead.
Method 7
from datetime import datetime date = datetime.today().date() print(date)
Method 8
Use f-strings, they are usually the best choice for any text-variable mix:
from datetime import date
print(f'{date.today():%Y-%m-%d}')
Taken from Python f-string formatting not working with strftime inline which has the official links as well.
Method 9
If you need e.g. pacific standard time (PST) you can do
from datetime import datetime
import pytz
tz = pytz.timezone('US/Pacific')
datetime.now(tz).strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
# '2021-09-02 10:21:41'
Method 10
my code is a little complicated but I use it a lot
strftime("%y_%m_%d", localtime(time.time()))
reference:’https://strftime.org/
you can look at the reference to make anything you want
for you what YYYY-MM-DD just change my code to:
strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time.time()))
Method 11
This works:
from datetime import date today =date.today()
Output in this time: 2020-08-29
Additional:
this_year = date.today().year this_month = date.today().month this_day = date.today().day print(today) print(this_year) print(this_month) print(this_day)
Method 12
To get day number from date is in python
for example:19-12-2020(dd-mm-yyy)order_date
we need 19 as output
order['day'] = order['Order_Date'].apply(lambda x: x.day)
Method 13
I prefer this, because this is simple, but maybe somehow inefficient and buggy. You must check the exit code of shell command if you want a strongly error-proof program.
os.system('date +%Y-%m-%d')
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