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How do I get the current time?

How do I get the current time?

please note, the most voted answers are for timezonoe-naive datetime, while we see that in production environment more and more services across the world are connected together and timezone-aware datetime become the required standard
This is a very valid point by @SławomirLenart and here is a quick tutorial showing multiple ways to get the current time based on the timezone

M
Mateen Ulhaq

Use datetime:

>>> import datetime
>>> now = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> now
datetime.datetime(2009, 1, 6, 15, 8, 24, 78915)
>>> print(now)
2009-01-06 15:08:24.789150

For just the clock time without the date:

>>> now.time()
datetime.time(15, 8, 24, 78915)
>>> print(now.time())
15:08:24.789150

To save typing, you can import the datetime object from the datetime module:

>>> from datetime import datetime

Then remove the prefix datetime. from all of the above.


It would be nice if this answer covered timezones (maybe UTC as an example) and perhaps begin with time.time().
@Toskan the format was not part of the question, so it shouldn't be part of the answer. There's already a link provided to more documentation of the module which contains stuff like formatting.
Which version of Python was the original answer given in? Just typing datetime.datetime.now() in my Python 2.7 interactive console (IronPython hasn't updated yet) gives me the same behavior as the newer example using print() in the answer. I haven't successfully replicated what the original answer shows (datetime.datetime(2009, 1, 6, 15, 8, 24, 78915)). (Not that I really want to, the print() behavior is preferred, but I am curious.)
@BobVicktor: Python 2.7, 3.7 and 3.8 all give the same behaviour for me, not sure what you're seeing.
@HarleyHolcombe Hmm... maybe it is an IronPython thing? When I type datetime.now() on its own it prints it out the same was as your answer shows print(datetime.now())...
M
Mateen Ulhaq

Use time.strftime():

>>> from time import gmtime, strftime
>>> strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", gmtime())
'2009-01-05 22:14:39'

Is this better/worse than @ParaMeterz's answer below? Why should we use the time module vs. the datetime module?
It doesn't return current hour of my computer.
This is UTC time, different from datetime module
@Saeed: Use the function localtime() instead of the gmtime() to get your local time.
@frank See related question on datetime vs. time.
M
Mateen Ulhaq
from datetime import datetime
datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

Example output: '2013-09-18 11:16:32'

See list of strftime directives.


C
Community

Similar to Harley's answer, but use the str() function for a quick-n-dirty, slightly more human readable format:

>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> str(datetime.now())
'2011-05-03 17:45:35.177000'

Not relevant; the "str" step is not within the scope of the question
@pppery Nor does the op say it isn't about getting a string of the time. The op doesn't say at all what they want to do with the time, so why is it a bad thing to show how to turn it in to a string? Most of the answers talk about getting a string from the time, so it appears to be a common use case, so why single out Ray's answer? What use is simply getting the time without knowing how to do anything with it? You can print it, or do math on it, and only a couple of the answers show how to do math on it, so I think printing/getting a string is a common use. ;-) (I know it is what I came for.)
The fact that this answer has more than 440 upvotes suggests that the minor addition of the string method was useful to a lot of people.
The fact that 440 people were looking for content that is not an actual answer to the question does not make that content an answer to the question.
@pppery The fact that it is another way to answer the question which makes it RELEVANT to other people who has a similar question to this question. So there is nothing wrong with this :)
M
MohammadHosseinZiyaaddini

How do I get the current time in Python?

The time module

The time module provides functions that tell us the time in "seconds since the epoch" as well as other utilities.

import time

Unix Epoch Time

This is the format you should get timestamps in for saving in databases. It is a simple floating-point number that can be converted to an integer. It is also good for arithmetic in seconds, as it represents the number of seconds since Jan 1, 1970, 00:00:00, and it is memory light relative to the other representations of time we'll be looking at next:

>>> time.time()
1424233311.771502

This timestamp does not account for leap-seconds, so it's not linear - leap seconds are ignored. So while it is not equivalent to the international UTC standard, it is close, and therefore quite good for most cases of record-keeping.

This is not ideal for human scheduling, however. If you have a future event you wish to take place at a certain point in time, you'll want to store that time with a string that can be parsed into a datetime object or a serialized datetime object (these will be described later).

time.ctime

You can also represent the current time in the way preferred by your operating system (which means it can change when you change your system preferences, so don't rely on this to be standard across all systems, as I've seen others expect). This is typically user friendly, but doesn't typically result in strings one can sort chronologically:

>>> time.ctime()
'Tue Feb 17 23:21:56 2015'

You can hydrate timestamps into human readable form with ctime as well:

>>> time.ctime(1424233311.771502)
'Tue Feb 17 23:21:51 2015'

This conversion is also not good for record-keeping (except in text that will only be parsed by humans - and with improved Optical Character Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, I think the number of these cases will diminish).

datetime module

The datetime module is also quite useful here:

>>> import datetime

datetime.datetime.now

The datetime.now is a class method that returns the current time. It uses the time.localtime without the timezone info (if not given, otherwise see timezone aware below). It has a representation (which would allow you to recreate an equivalent object) echoed on the shell, but when printed (or coerced to a str), it is in human readable (and nearly ISO) format, and the lexicographic sort is equivalent to the chronological sort:

>>> datetime.datetime.now()
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 17, 23, 43, 49, 94252)
>>> print(datetime.datetime.now())
2015-02-17 23:43:51.782461

datetime's utcnow

You can get a datetime object in UTC time, a global standard, by doing this:

>>> datetime.datetime.utcnow()
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 18, 4, 53, 28, 394163)
>>> print(datetime.datetime.utcnow())
2015-02-18 04:53:31.783988

UTC is a time standard that is nearly equivalent to the GMT timezone. (While GMT and UTC do not change for Daylight Savings Time, their users may switch to other timezones, like British Summer Time, during the Summer.)

datetime timezone aware

However, none of the datetime objects we've created so far can be easily converted to various timezones. We can solve that problem with the pytz module:

>>> import pytz
>>> then = datetime.datetime.now(pytz.utc)
>>> then
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 18, 4, 55, 58, 753949, tzinfo=<UTC>)

Equivalently, in Python 3 we have the timezone class with a utc timezone instance attached, which also makes the object timezone aware (but to convert to another timezone without the handy pytz module is left as an exercise to the reader):

>>> datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 18, 22, 31, 56, 564191, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)

And we see we can easily convert to timezones from the original UTC object.

>>> print(then)
2015-02-18 04:55:58.753949+00:00
>>> print(then.astimezone(pytz.timezone('US/Eastern')))
2015-02-17 23:55:58.753949-05:00

You can also make a naive datetime object aware with the pytz timezone localize method, or by replacing the tzinfo attribute (with replace, this is done blindly), but these are more last resorts than best practices:

>>> pytz.utc.localize(datetime.datetime.utcnow())
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 18, 6, 6, 29, 32285, tzinfo=<UTC>)
>>> datetime.datetime.utcnow().replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc)
datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 18, 6, 9, 30, 728550, tzinfo=<UTC>)

The pytz module allows us to make our datetime objects timezone aware and convert the times to the hundreds of timezones available in the pytz module.

One could ostensibly serialize this object for UTC time and store that in a database, but it would require far more memory and be more prone to error than simply storing the Unix Epoch time, which I demonstrated first.

The other ways of viewing times are much more error-prone, especially when dealing with data that may come from different time zones. You want there to be no confusion as to which timezone a string or serialized datetime object was intended for.

If you're displaying the time with Python for the user, ctime works nicely, not in a table (it doesn't typically sort well), but perhaps in a clock. However, I personally recommend, when dealing with time in Python, either using Unix time, or a timezone aware UTC datetime object.


I think everyone can agree that ctime has got to be the weirdest way of formatting a datetime ever. Abbreviated day of the week and month, day of month, 24 hour h:m:s, and then a four digit year. Nerds that like to sort date strings, Americans, Europeans... everyone - yes, everyone - can find at least two things to be irritated about in that format. Although I'll use it because it's super easy.
As I say above regarding ctime: "You can also represent the current time in the way preferred by your operating system (which means it can change when you change your system preferences, so don't rely on this to be standard across all systems, as I've seen others expect). This is typically user friendly, but doesn't typically result in strings one can sort chronologically:"
R
Remi Guan

Do

from time import time

t = time()

t - float number, good for time interval measurement.

There is some difference for Unix and Windows platforms.


My result on Windows 10 home was 1576095264.2682993 - for Windows, this might just give the time in seconds.
G
Georgy
>>> from time import gmtime, strftime
>>> strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %X +0000", gmtime())
'Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:54:56 +0000'

That outputs the current GMT in the specified format. There is also a localtime() method.

This page has more details.


P
Peter Mortensen

The previous answers are all good suggestions, but I find it easiest to use ctime():

In [2]: from time import ctime
In [3]: ctime()
Out[3]: 'Thu Oct 31 11:40:53 2013'

This gives a nicely formatted string representation of the current local time.


The OP asked how to get the time, not how to display it!
P
Peter Mortensen

The quickest way is:

>>> import time
>>> time.strftime("%Y%m%d")
'20130924'

R
Rob I

If you need current time as a time object:

>>> import datetime
>>> now = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> datetime.time(now.hour, now.minute, now.second)
datetime.time(11, 23, 44)

T
Tom

You can use the time module:

>>> import time
>>> print(time.strftime("%d/%m/%Y"))
06/02/2015

The use of the capital Y gives the full year, and using y would give 06/02/15.

You could also use the following code to give a more lengthy time:

>>> time.strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S")
'Fri, 06 Feb 2015 17:45:09'

P
Peter Mortensen

.isoformat() is in the documentation, but not yet here (this is mighty similar to @Ray Vega's answer):

>>> import datetime
>>> datetime.datetime.now().isoformat()
'2013-06-24T20:35:55.982000'

C
C8H10N4O2

Why not ask the U.S. Naval Observatory, the official timekeeper of the United States Navy?

import requests
from lxml import html

page = requests.get('http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/timer.pl')
tree = html.fromstring(page.content)
print(tree.xpath('//html//body//h3//pre/text()')[1])

If you live in the D.C. area (like me) the latency might not be too bad...


@C8H10N4O2 While you are correct that the other answers assume that your computer already knows the correct time, this answer assumes that the computer has a connection to the internet, that you are in the U.S., and that they will never take down that file/alter the link. Far more assumptions in this answer than accepted. Still clever none the less
Excellent to have another source for time than the builtin clock! Even a good alternative to the more logical choice of NTP.
Site is no longer available $ curl tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/timer.pl curl: (6) Could not resolve host: tycho.usno.navy.mil
G
Georgy

Using pandas to get the current time, kind of overkilling the problem at hand:

import pandas as pd
print(pd.datetime.now())
print(pd.datetime.now().date())
print(pd.datetime.now().year)
print(pd.datetime.now().month)
print(pd.datetime.now().day)
print(pd.datetime.now().hour)
print(pd.datetime.now().minute)
print(pd.datetime.now().second)
print(pd.datetime.now().microsecond)

Output:

2017-09-22 12:44:56.092642
2017-09-22
2017
9
22
12
44
56
92693

This method will be deprecated in future versions of pandas. Use the datetime module instead.
d
durjoy

if you are using numpy already then directly you can use numpy.datetime64() function.

import numpy as np
str(np.datetime64('now'))

for only date:

str(np.datetime64('today'))

or, if you are using pandas already then you can use pandas.to_datetime() function

import pandas as pd
str(pd.to_datetime('now'))

or,

str(pd.to_datetime('today'))

K
Kristen G.

This is what I ended up going with:

>>>from time import strftime
>>>strftime("%m/%d/%Y %H:%M")
01/09/2015 13:11

Also, this table is a necessary reference for choosing the appropriate format codes to get the date formatted just the way you want it (from Python "datetime" documentation here).

https://i.stack.imgur.com/i6Hg7.jpg


strftime(time_format) returns the current local time as a string that corresponds to the given time_format. Note: time.strftime() and datetime.strftime() support different directive sets e.g., %z is not supported by time.strftime() on Python 2.
Is it better practice to use datetime instead of time?
Many time module functions are thin wrappers around corresponding C functions. datetime is a higher level and it is usually more portable.
j
jfs

datetime.now() returns the current time as a naive datetime object that represents time in the local timezone. That value may be ambiguous e.g., during DST transitions ("fall back"). To avoid ambiguity either UTC timezone should be used:

from datetime import datetime

utc_time = datetime.utcnow()
print(utc_time) # -> 2014-12-22 22:48:59.916417

Or a timezone-aware object that has the corresponding timezone info attached (Python 3.2+):

from datetime import datetime, timezone

now = datetime.now(timezone.utc).astimezone()
print(now) # -> 2014-12-23 01:49:25.837541+03:00

FYI, it is not recommended to use datetime.utcnow() to represent the current time in UTC as that still returns a 'naive' datetime object -- instead, it is recommended to use datetime.now(timezone.utc) as that returns an 'aware' datetime object. See the Python docs for more details: docs.python.org/3/library/…
@Seth notice that the Python 3.2+ solution uses timezone.utc already. Perhaps, now that Python 2.7 is EOLed the naive-datetime may be dropped
Ah, I didn't realize that was there purely for compatibility with Python 2.7 -- perhaps that should be clarified in the post? At least to me, it seemed like this post was implying that both the naive and aware methods were (still) equally acceptable ways to get the UTC time, which is why I pointed out that that's not what Python's (latest) documentation says.
P
Peter Mortensen
import datetime
date_time = datetime.datetime.now()

date = date_time.date()  # Gives the date
time = date_time.time()  # Gives the time

print date.year, date.month, date.day
print time.hour, time.minute, time.second, time.microsecond

Do dir(date) or any variables including the package. You can get all the attributes and methods associated with the variable.


@snofty and @user1016274, if import datetime then it is datetime.datetime.now()\n if from datetime import datetime then it is datetime.now()
z
zwessels
>>> import datetime, time
>>> time = time.strftime("%H:%M:%S:%MS", time.localtime())
>>> print time
'00:21:38:20S'

I think you mean to say "datetime.now().strftime(...)"
yes it can be done as you said. "datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S:%MS")"
%MS does not give you milliseconds!!
B
Ben

This question doesn't need a new answer just for the sake of it ... a shiny new-ish toy/module, however, is enough justification. That being the Pendulum library, which appears to do the sort of things which arrow attempted, except without the inherent flaws and bugs which beset arrow.

For instance, the answer to the original question:

>>> import pendulum
>>> print(pendulum.now())
2018-08-14T05:29:28.315802+10:00
>>> print(pendulum.now('utc'))
2018-08-13T19:29:35.051023+00:00

There's a lot of standards which need addressing, including multiple RFCs and ISOs, to worry about. Ever get them mixed up; not to worry, take a little look into dir(pendulum.constants) There's a bit more than RFC and ISO formats there, though.

When we say local, though what do we mean? Well I mean:

>>> print(pendulum.now().timezone_name)
Australia/Melbourne
>>>

Presumably most of the rest of you mean somewhere else.

And on it goes. Long story short: Pendulum attempts to do for date and time what requests did for HTTP. It's worth consideration, particularly for both its ease of use and extensive documentation.


P
Peter Mortensen

By default, now() function returns output in the YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS:MS format. Use the below sample script to get the current date and time in a Python script and print results on the screen. Create file getDateTime1.py with the below content.

import datetime

currentDT = datetime.datetime.now()
print (str(currentDT))

The output looks like below:

2018-03-01 17:03:46.759624

P
Peter Mortensen

Try the arrow module from http://crsmithdev.com/arrow/:

import arrow
arrow.now()

Or the UTC version:

arrow.utcnow()

To change its output, add .format():

arrow.utcnow().format('YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss ZZ')

For a specific timezone:

arrow.now('US/Pacific')

An hour ago:

arrow.utcnow().replace(hours=-1)

Or if you want the gist.

arrow.get('2013-05-11T21:23:58.970460+00:00').humanize()
>>> '2 years ago'

beware that arrow.now('Time/Zone') may fail for some timezones (arrow uses dateutil that has broken utc -> local conversions that are used inside arrow.now(). Note: pytz has no such issue. Also, there are other timezone-related issues
J
Jay Walker

Current time of a timezone

from datetime import datetime
import pytz

tz_NY = pytz.timezone('America/New_York') 
datetime_NY = datetime.now(tz_NY)
print("NY time:", datetime_NY.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))

tz_London = pytz.timezone('Europe/London')
datetime_London = datetime.now(tz_London)
print("London time:", datetime_London.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))

tz_India = pytz.timezone('Asia/India')
datetime_India = datetime.now(tz_India)
print("India time:", datetime_India.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))

#list timezones
pytz.all_timezones

y
y.selivonchyk

To get exactly 3 decimal points for milliseconds 11:34:23.751 run this:

def get_time_str(decimal_points=3):
        return time.strftime("%H:%M:%S", time.localtime()) + '.%d' % (time.time() % 1 * 10**decimal_points)

More context:

I want to get the time with milliseconds. A simple way to get them:

import time, datetime

print(datetime.datetime.now().time())                         # 11:20:08.272239

# Or in a more complicated way
print(datetime.datetime.now().time().isoformat())             # 11:20:08.272239
print(datetime.datetime.now().time().strftime('%H:%M:%S.%f')) # 11:20:08.272239

# But do not use this:
print(time.strftime("%H:%M:%S.%f", time.localtime()), str)    # 11:20:08.%f

But I want only milliseconds, right? The shortest way to get them:

import time

time.strftime("%H:%M:%S", time.localtime()) + '.%d' % (time.time() % 1 * 1000)
# 11:34:23.751

Add or remove zeroes from the last multiplication to adjust number of decimal points, or just:

def get_time_str(decimal_points=3):
    return time.strftime("%H:%M:%S", time.localtime()) + '.%d' % (time.time() % 1 * 10**decimal_points)

This works in Python 3: time.strftime("%H:%M:%S", time.localtime()) + '.{}'.format(int(time.time() % 1 * 1000))
m
motagirl2

If you just want the current timestamp in ms (for example, to measure execution time), you can also use the "timeit" module:

import timeit
start_time = timeit.default_timer()
do_stuff_you_want_to_measure()
end_time = timeit.default_timer()
print("Elapsed time: {}".format(end_time - start_time))

s
scrpy

You can use this function to get the time (unfortunately it doesn't say AM or PM):

def gettime():
    from datetime import datetime
    return ((str(datetime.now())).split(' ')[1]).split('.')[0]

To get the hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds to merge later, you can use these functions:

Hour:

def gethour():
    from datetime import datetime
    return (((str(datetime.now())).split(' ')[1]).split('.')[0]).split(':')[0]

Minute:

def getminute():
    from datetime import datetime
    return (((str(datetime.now())).split(' ')[1]).split('.')[0]).split(':')[1]

Second:

def getsecond():
    from datetime import datetime
    return (((str(datetime.now())).split(' ')[1]).split('.')[0]).split(':')[2]

Millisecond:

def getmillisecond():
    from datetime import datetime
    return (str(datetime.now())).split('.')[1]

C
Chathuranga Silva

You can try the following

import datetime

now = datetime.datetime.now()
print(now)

or

import datetime

now = datetime.datetime.now()
print(now.strftime("%Y-%b-%d, %A %I:%M:%S"))

k
kungphu

Because no one has mentioned it yet, and this is something I ran into recently... a pytz timezone's fromutc() method combined with datetime's utcnow() is the best way I've found to get a useful current time (and date) in any timezone.

from datetime import datetime

import pytz


JST = pytz.timezone("Asia/Tokyo")


local_time = JST.fromutc(datetime.utcnow())

If all you want is the time, you can then get that with local_time.time().


Surprisingly, All the above answers didnt mention Time zones. you should also include strftime to get the format you wanted.
I didn't include that since it's already been covered in other answers (and display formatting wasn't part of the question).
G
Georgy
import datetime

todays_date = datetime.date.today()
print(todays_date)
>>> 2019-10-12

# adding strftime will remove the seconds
current_time = datetime.datetime.now().strftime('%H:%M')
print(current_time)
>>> 23:38

L
Littin Rajan

Method1: Getting Current Date and Time from system datetime

The datetime module supplies classes for manipulating dates and times.

Code

from datetime import datetime,date

print("Date: "+str(date.today().year)+"-"+str(date.today().month)+"-"+str(date.today().day))
print("Year: "+str(date.today().year))
print("Month: "+str(date.today().month))
print("Day: "+str(date.today().day)+"\n")

print("Time: "+str(datetime.today().hour)+":"+str(datetime.today().minute)+":"+str(datetime.today().second))
print("Hour: "+str(datetime.today().hour))
print("Minute: "+str(datetime.today().minute))
print("Second: "+str(datetime.today().second))
print("MilliSecond: "+str(datetime.today().microsecond))

Output will be like

Date: 2020-4-18
Year: 2020
Month: 4
Day: 18

Time: 19:30:5
Hour: 19
Minute: 30
Second: 5
MilliSecond: 836071

Method2: Getting Current Date and Time if Network is available

urllib package helps us to handle the url's that means webpages. Here we collects data from the webpage http://just-the-time.appspot.com/ and parses dateime from the webpage using the package dateparser.

Code

from urllib.request import urlopen
import dateparser

time_url = urlopen(u'http://just-the-time.appspot.com/')
datetime = time_url.read().decode("utf-8", errors="ignore").split(' ')[:-1]
date = datetime[0]
time = datetime[1]

print("Date: "+str(date))
print("Year: "+str(date.split('-')[0]))
print("Month: "+str(date.split('-')[1]))
print("Day: "+str(date.split('-')[2])+'\n')

print("Time: "+str(time))
print("Hour: "+str(time.split(':')[0]))
print("Minute: "+str(time.split(':')[1]))
print("Second: "+str(time.split(':')[2]))

Output will be like

Date: 2020-04-18
Year: 2020
Month: 04
Day: 18

Time: 14:17:10
Hour: 14
Minute: 17
Second: 10

Method3: Getting Current Date and Time from Local Time of the Machine

Python's time module provides a function for getting local time from the number of seconds elapsed since the epoch called localtime(). ctime() function takes seconds passed since epoch as an argument and returns a string representing local time.

Code

from time import time, ctime
datetime = ctime(time()).split(' ')

print("Date: "+str(datetime[4])+"-"+str(datetime[1])+"-"+str(datetime[2]))
print("Year: "+str(datetime[4]))
print("Month: "+str(datetime[1]))
print("Day: "+str(datetime[2]))
print("Week Day: "+str(datetime[0])+'\n')

print("Time: "+str(datetime[3]))
print("Hour: "+str(datetime[3]).split(':')[0])
print("Minute: "+str(datetime[3]).split(':')[1])
print("Second: "+str(datetime[3]).split(':')[2])

Output will be like

Date: 2020-Apr-18
Year: 2020
Month: Apr
Day: 18
Week Day: Sat

Time: 19:30:20
Hour: 19
Minute: 30
Second: 20