Python datetime to string without microsecond component

I’m adding UTC time strings to Bitbucket API responses that currently only contain Amsterdam (!) time strings. For consistency with the UTC time strings returned elsewhere, the desired format is 2011-11-03 11:07:04 (followed by +00:00, but that’s not germane).

What’s the best way to create such a string (without a microsecond component) from a datetime instance with a microsecond component?

>>> import datetime
>>> print unicode(datetime.datetime.now())
2011-11-03 11:13:39.278026

I’ll add the best option that’s occurred to me as a possible answer, but there may well be a more elegant solution.

Edit: I should mention that I’m not actually printing the current time – I used datetime.now to provide a quick example. So the solution should not assume that any datetime instances it receives will include microsecond components.

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

If you want to format a datetime object in a specific format that is different from the standard format, it’s best to explicitly specify that format:

>>> import datetime
>>> datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
'2011-11-03 18:21:26'

See the documentation of datetime.strftime() for an explanation of the % directives.

Method 2

>>> import datetime
>>> now = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> print unicode(now.replace(microsecond=0))
2011-11-03 11:19:07

Method 3

In Python 3.6:

from datetime import datetime
datetime.now().isoformat(' ', 'seconds')
'2017-01-11 14:41:33'

https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime.isoformat

Method 4

This is the way I do it. ISO format:

import datetime
datetime.datetime.now().replace(microsecond=0).isoformat()
# Returns: '2017-01-23T14:58:07'

You can replace the ‘T’ if you don’t want ISO format:

datetime.datetime.now().replace(microsecond=0).isoformat(' ')
# Returns: '2017-01-23 15:05:27'

Method 5

Yet another option:

>>> import time
>>> time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
'2011-11-03 11:31:28'

By default this uses local time, if you need UTC you can use the following:

>>> time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", time.gmtime())
'2011-11-03 18:32:20'

Method 6

Keep the first 19 characters that you wanted via slicing:

>>> str(datetime.datetime.now())[:19]
'2011-11-03 14:37:50'

Method 7

I usually do:

import datetime
now = datetime.datetime.now()
now = now.replace(microsecond=0)  # To print now without microsecond.

# To print now:
print(now)

output:

2019-01-13 14:40:28

Method 8

Since not all datetime.datetime instances have a microsecond component (i.e. when it is zero), you can partition the string on a “.” and take only the first item, which will always work:

unicode(datetime.datetime.now()).partition('.')[0]

Method 9

As of Python 3.6+, the best way of doing this is by the new timespec argument for isoformat.

isoformat(timespec='seconds', sep=' ')

Usage:

>>> datetime.now().isoformat(timespec='seconds')
'2020-10-16T18:38:21'
>>> datetime.now().isoformat(timespec='seconds', sep=' ')
'2020-10-16 18:38:35'

Method 10

We can try something like below

import datetime

date_generated = datetime.datetime.now()
date_generated.replace(microsecond=0).isoformat(' ').partition('+')[0]

Method 11

f-string formatting

>>> import datetime
>>> print(f'{datetime.datetime.now():%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S}')
2021-12-01 22:10:07

Method 12

This I use because I can understand and hence remember it better (and date time format also can be customized based on your choice) :-

import datetime
moment = datetime.datetime.now()
print("{}/{}/{} {}:{}:{}".format(moment.day, moment.month, moment.year,
                                 moment.hour, moment.minute, moment.second))

Method 13

>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> dt = datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %X")
>>> print(dt)
'2021-02-05 04:10:24'

Method 14

I found this to be the simplest way.

>>> t = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> t
datetime.datetime(2018, 11, 30, 17, 21, 26, 606191)
>>> t = str(t).split('.')
>>> t
['2018-11-30 17:21:26', '606191']
>>> t = t[0]
>>> t
'2018-11-30 17:21:26'
>>>

Method 15

You can also use the following method

import datetime as _dt

ts = _dt.datetime.now().timestamp()
print("TimeStamp without microseconds: ", int(ts)) #TimeStamp without microseconds:  1629275829

dt = _dt.datetime.now()
print("Date & Time without microseconds: ", str(dt)[0:-7]) #Date & Time without microseconds:  2021-08-18 13:07:09

Method 16

Current TimeStamp without microsecond component:

timestamp = list(str(datetime.timestamp(datetime.now())).split('.'))[0]

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0