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What format is time in Python?

Published in Python Time 3 mins read

Time in Python can be represented in several formats, including strings, numbers, and time objects. The specific format depends on how you're storing, manipulating, or displaying the time.

Time Representation in Python

Python provides several ways to work with time:

  • String: Time can be stored as a string, often formatted according to specific conventions. For instance, using strftime() lets you format a time object into a string based on format codes (e.g., "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"). Similarly, strptime() parses a time string into a struct_time object.

  • Numeric: Time can be represented as a numeric value, typically the number of seconds since the epoch (January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC). The time() function in the time module returns the time as a floating-point number.

  • time module's struct_time object: The time module includes the struct_time object, which is a named tuple representing a time in a structured way. It contains attributes such as year, month, day, hour, minute, second, weekday, day of the year, and a flag indicating whether daylight saving time is in effect. Functions like gmtime() and localtime() return struct_time objects.

  • datetime module's datetime object: The datetime module provides datetime objects, which represent a specific point in time, including both date and time components.

  • datetime module's time object: The datetime module also includes a time object, which represents only the time component (hours, minutes, seconds, microseconds) of a day, independent of any specific date.

Examples

Here are a few examples to illustrate these formats:

  1. String Format:

    import datetime

now = datetime.datetime.now()
time_string = now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
print(time_string)  # Output: e.g., 2024-01-03 14:30:00

  2. Numeric Format (Seconds Since Epoch):

    import time

seconds = time.time()
print(seconds)  # Output: e.g., 1704282600.0

  3. struct_time Object:

    import time

time_tuple = time.localtime()
print(time_tuple) # Output: e.g., time.struct_time(tm_year=2024, tm_mon=1, tm_mday=3, tm_hour=14, tm_min=30, tm_sec=0, tm_wday=2, tm_yday=3, tm_isdst=0)

  4. datetime Object:

    import datetime

now = datetime.datetime.now()
print(now) # Output: e.g., 2024-01-03 14:30:00.123456

  5. time Object (from datetime):

    import datetime

now = datetime.datetime.now().time()
print(now) # Output: e.g., 14:30:00.123456

In summary, time in Python can be represented in various formats such as strings (using format codes), numeric values (seconds since epoch), struct_time objects from the time module, and datetime or time objects from the datetime module. The choice of format depends on the specific use case.

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