datetime can be used to work with date and time in a Python script. Take for example the following.

#!/usr/bin/python3
import datetime

print(f"today  = {datetime.datetime.today()}")
print(f"now    = {datetime.datetime.now()}")

Better yet, instead of "import datetime" you can go with from datetime import datetime so that you can use datetime.now() or datetime.today() instead of datetime.datetime.now() or datetime.datetime.today().

#!/usr/bin/python3
from datetime import datetime

print(f"today  = {datetime.today()}")
print(f"now    = {datetime.now()}")

Running this script will return something like this.

today  = 2023-02-09 21:34:36.025655
now    = 2023-02-09 21:34:36.025713

date() and time() can be included to only get the date or time.

#!/usr/bin/python3
from datetime import datetime

print(f"today date = {datetime.today().date()}")
print(f"today time = {datetime.today().time()}")

Which should print something like this.

today date = 2023-02-09
today time = 21:34:36.025706

Often, when issuing a request to a REST API, the response timestamp should be a string.

#!/usr/bin/python3
response = requests.get("https://example.com/api/v1")
timestamp = response['timestamp']

Or, when submitting a query to a SQL database, timestamp may be a string or a datetime object.

#!/usr/bin/python3
import psycopg2
connection = psycopg2.connect(database=db_name, host=db_host, user=db_user, password=db_pass, port=db_port)
cursor  = connection.cursor()
cursor.execute("select timestamp from mytable")
results = cursor.fetchall()

for row in results:
  timestamp = row[0]

cursor.close()
connection.close()

type can be used to determine if the timestamp object is a string or boolean or datetime object, et cetera.

print(f"timestamp type = {type(timestamp)}")

If the timestamp object is not a datetime object, strptime can be used to convert the object into a datetime object so that you can do something with the datetime object.

#!/usr/bin/python3
datetime_object = datetime.strptime("2023-07-02 07:14:58", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")

print(f"datetime_object = {datetime_object}")

strftime can be used for a customized date and time format.

#!/usr/bin/python3
from datetime import datetime
print(f"formatted date time = {datetime.today().strftime("%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S")}")

Which should print the following.

formatted date time = 02/09/2023 06:24:10

Following are commonly used options.

Timezone

The pytz (Python Time Zone) module can be used if you need to set a specific timezone. You will probably need to use pip to install pytz.

pip install pytz

Here are a few examples of how you can use timezone.

#!/usr/bin/python3
from datetime import datetime
from pytz import timezone

print(f"utc             = {datetime.now(timezone('utc'))}")
print(f"cst6cdt         = {datetime.now(timezone('cst6cdt'))}")
print(f"america/chicago = {datetime.now(timezone('america/chicago'))}")
print(f"us/eastern      = {datetime.now(timezone('us/eastern'))}")
print(f"asia/kolkata    = {datetime.now(timezone('asia/kolkata'))}")

Or like this, using astimezone.

#!/usr/bin/python3
from datetime import datetime
from pytz import timezone

print(f"utc             = {datetime.now().astimezone(timezone('utc'))}")
print(f"cst6cdt         = {datetime.now().astimezone(timezone('cst6cdt'))}")
print(f"america/chicago = {datetime.now().astimezone(timezone('america/chicago'))}")
print(f"us/eastern      = {datetime.now().astimezone(timezone('us/eastern'))}")
print(f"asia/kolkata    = {datetime.now().astimezone(timezone('asia/kolkata'))}")

Which should return something like this.

utc             = 2025-01-30 07:04:49.487889+00:00
cst6cdt         = 2025-01-30 01:04:49.487931-06:00
america/chicago = 2025-01-30 01:04:49.497777-06:00
us/eastern      = 2025-02-07 07:36:33.798807-05:00
asia/kolkata    = 2025-01-30 12:34:49.498041+05:30

And here is an example of how you can take a string and convert it to a datetime object with timezone aware offset.

#!/usr/bin/python3
from datetime import datetime
import pytz
from pytz import timezone

print(f"utc             = {pytz.utc.localize(datetime.strptime("02-10-2025 02:03:15", '%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S'))}")
print(f"cst6cdt         = {pytz.utc.localize(datetime.strptime("02-10-2025 02:03:15", '%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S')).astimezone(timezone('cst6cdt'))}")
print(f"america/chicago = {pytz.utc.localize(datetime.strptime("02-10-2025 02:03:15", '%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S')).astimezone(timezone('america/chicago'))}")
print(f"us/eastern      = {pytz.utc.localize(datetime.strptime("02-10-2025 02:03:15", '%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S')).astimezone(timezone('us/eastern'))}")
print(f"asia/kolkata    = {pytz.utc.localize(datetime.strptime("02-10-2025 02:03:15", '%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S')).astimezone(timezone('asia/kolkata'))}")

Which should return something like this.

utc             = 2025-02-10 02:03:15+00:00
cst6cdt         = 2025-02-09 20:03:15-06:00
america/chicago = 2025-02-09 20:03:15-06:00
us/eastern      = 2025-02-09 21:03:15-05:00
asia/kolkata    = 2025-02-10 07:33:15+05:30

If you simply just want to be able to use %z or %Z in strftime, astimezone can be used.

#!/usr/bin/python3
from datetime import datetime
import pytz

print(f"time zone offset = {datetime.now().astimezone().strftime("%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S %z")}")
print(f"time zone = {datetime.now().astimezone().strftime("%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S %Z")}")

Which should return something like this.

time zone offset = 05/25/2023 02:23:57 -0500
time zone = 05/25/2023 02:23:57 CDT

Here is how you can return the date and time in a specific time zone.

#!/usr/bin/python
from datetime import datetime
import pytz
from pytz import timezone

print("datetime.now(timezone('Asia/Kolkata')))
print("datetime.now(timezone('America/Chicago')))
print("datetime.now(timezone('CST6CDT')))

Here is how you can print the timezones that can be used with pytz.

#!/usr/bin/python
import pytz

for timezone in pytz.all_timezones:
  print(timezone)                     

relativedelta can be used to adjust the date forward or backwards. You will need to install the python-dateutil package to use relativedelta.

pip install python-dateutil

Here are some examples.

#!/usr/bin/python
from datetime import datetime
from dateutil.relativedelta import relativedelta

one_hour_ago  = datetime.now() - relativedelta(hours=1)
one_day_ago   = datetime.now() - relativedelta(days=1)
one_week_ago  = datetime.now() - relativedelta(weeks=1)
one_month_ago = datetime.now() - relativedelta(months=1)
one_year_ago  = datetime.now() - relativedelta(years=1)

Here is how you can use both relativedelta and strftime.

#!/usr/bin/python
from datetime import datetime
from dateutil.relativedelta import relativedelta

one_hour_ago  = (datetime.now() - relativedelta(hours=1)).strftime('%m/%d/%Y')
one_day_ago   = (datetime.now() - relativedelta(days=1)).strftime('%m/%d/%Y')
one_week_ago  = (datetime.now() - relativedelta(weeks=1)).strftime('%m/%d/%Y')
one_month_ago = (datetime.now() - relativedelta(months=1)).strftime('%m/%d/%Y')
one_year_ago  = (datetime.now() - relativedelta(years=1)).strftime('%m/%d/%Y')

Here is an if statement that can be used to convert a day such as 1 to 1st or 2 to 2nd or 3 to 3rd or 4 to 4th.

if re.match('^(1|21|31)$', datetime.now().strftime('%-d')):
  day = f"{datetime.now().strftime('%-d')}st"
elif re.match('^(2|22)$', datetime.now().strftime('%-d')):
  day = f"{datetime.now().strftime('%-d')}nd"
elif re.match('^(3|23)$', datetime.now().strftime('%-d')):
  day = f"{datetime.now().strftime('%-d')}rd"
else:
  day = f"{datetime.now().strftime('%-d')}th"

Here is how to return a specific day, such as daylight savings (first Sunday in November).

current_year = datetime.today().strftime("%Y")
november_first = datetime.strptime(f"11-01-{current_year}", "%m-%d-%Y")
integer = 1
match = False

while (match != True):
  day_of_the_week = november_first.strptime(f"11-0{integer}-{current_year}", "%m-%d-%Y").strftime("%A")

  if day_of_the_week == "Sunday":
    daylight_savings = datetime.strptime(f"11-0{integer}-{current_year}", "%m-%d-%Y").strftime("%m-%d-%Y")
    break
  else:
    integer += 1

now = datetime.now()

# override for testing/debugging/proof of concept
#now = datetime.strptime("2024-11-03", "%Y-%m-%d")

if now == datetime.strptime(f"{daylight_savings}", "%m-%d-%Y %H"):

  print(f"Today {daylight_savings} is daylight savings")

else:

  print(f"Today {daylight_savings} is NOT daylight savings")