Getting today's date in YYYY-MM-DD in Python?
Asked Answered
A

13

962

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]
Anemology answered 9/9, 2015 at 23:20 Comment(3)
maybe this? \n now = datetime.datetime.now() \n str(now.strftime("Y-%m-%d")Patino
@Patino What I mean is in my experience, there's usually a built in way of getting the thing we want in Python without having to split, index, concat, join etc.Anemology
pandas and pendulum alternatives are available for those working with these libraries.Loss
W
1598

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'

To get the UTC date and time:

>>> datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
'2021-01-27 00:50:03'
Whorton answered 9/9, 2015 at 23:23 Comment(6)
there is also a strong probability that "%x" would work ... but that is locale dependentProvolone
how about just time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")?Graaf
For UTC date: datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y-%m-%d')Viticulture
Worth noting that date has this available as well as datetimeDictatorial
Here's a helpful list to get variations of OPs desired result: strftime.orgUnderlying
Upvoted. Here's my favorite format: datetime.today().strftime("%Y%m%d-%H%M%S.%f"). Example output: '20230803-195136.416752'. The meaning is YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.microseconds. That's "Year Month Day - Hours Minutes Seconds.microseconds". I use this commonly for auto-sorting log files and temporary files.Pincince
D
245

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'
Durwin answered 26/12, 2017 at 22:52 Comment(9)
Is it possible to change the separator to /?Peonir
@StevenVascellaro it would be date.today().strftime('%Y/%m/%d')Durwin
@StevenVascellaro Bad idea. The reader normally assumes the separator . to 'D.M.Y', the separator / to M/D/Y and the separator - to Y-M-D. Although not everybody follows these guidelines, it would help reading dates internationally as long as not everybody has switched to Y-M-D.Dispel
@Dispel I’m working with an api that assumes the American date format m/d/y. I’ve already changed the order in my application.Peonir
@StevenVascellaro But then you'd need M/D/Y, wouldn't you?Dispel
@Dispel Yes, I am using m/d/yPeonir
This is the best answer because more explicit .date is used instead of .datetime which requires stripping out the time.Graehl
A short answer: datetime.date.today().isoformat() --but even shorter: str(datetime.date.today())Kamat
String value of date in str( datetime.date.today() ) is different than that in str( ( datetime.date.today() ) ). -- another place where the legacy behaviour of repr and str is non-intuitive.Sanction
E
98

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'
Eurasian answered 5/12, 2018 at 0:15 Comment(0)
B
95

Very late answer, but you can simply use:

import time
today = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
# 2024-02-22
Burglary answered 14/2, 2020 at 23:12 Comment(0)
B
52

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.

Backwater answered 17/2, 2017 at 16:30 Comment(5)
for a simple task like this, why use another library when built-in library can do it as simply. Of course, if user need other multitude of {time, date}-related functions, bringing in a new library makes sense.Durwin
you made me laugh on reading that 2nd line of code. how's that better than print(date.today()) >> "2018-12-16"?? lol and easily get the int values t.year,t.month,t.day+1 >> (2018, 12, 17) where t = date.today() and the fact people don't have to call green arrow to tell them the time. oh god this is too much code to remember...Fennie
@Puddle: Hilarious.Backwater
@Durwin How is import datetime different than import arrow? Sure one is built in, but if arrow provides a more convenient format, then why not use it?Airframe
@Airframe you already answered your question. Built-in vs not. If someone needs those extra stuff, sure, why not arrow? But, for many simple projects, it's just unnecessary. Also, in many company-internal projects, ppl need to get approval for including new libraries.Durwin
L
36

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.

Loss answered 27/3, 2019 at 7:6 Comment(6)
Great news pandas has it too!Malinda
This one is really awesome, specifically when one's working on pandasCaesar
pd.to_datetime(day).date() is useful if you're using pandas and don't want to convert to a str. Thanks!Horan
@cs95 The main question is "How to get YYYY-MM-DD format". Not "how to get the current date". Your answer is irrelevant. You can try to extend it by stripping everything after "YYYY-MM-DD" to answer the question.Omeromero
For "pendulum" use: now = pendulum.now(), now = now.format('YYYY-MM-DD')Omeromero
@AlexeiMarinichenko I disagree with the premise, there are actually two questions here. I've focused on the first one, because the answer to the second one is less interesting (strftime). Besides, this answer is useful for those who want the date object and not the date string.Loss
O
12
from datetime import datetime

date = datetime.today().date()

print(date)
Ofay answered 29/1, 2021 at 17:9 Comment(2)
While this code may solve the question, including an explanation of how and why this solves the problem would really help to improve the quality of your post, and probably result in more up-votes. Remember that you are answering the question for readers in the future, not just the person asking now. Please edit your answer to add explanations and give an indication of what limitations and assumptions apply.Accelerant
This is a longer/worse variant. Prefer the shorter str(datetime.date.today())Kamat
I
10

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.

Inkblot answered 27/4, 2022 at 12:35 Comment(0)
T
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'
Thiamine answered 2/9, 2021 at 17:24 Comment(0)
D
2

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()))
Dextrorotation answered 10/8, 2020 at 17:45 Comment(0)
C
1

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)
Colo answered 28/8, 2020 at 21:27 Comment(1)
Try not to use python built in functions and variables as local variables (ex: today, year, day). Also, the request from the user is to get today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format. Can you try and answer to the question (format YYYY-MM-DD).Intemerate
F
1

If you were already using numpy, numpy.datetime64 could be used to get today's date as well. Then simply cast it into a string (or use np.datetime_as_string) to get its string representation in ISO 8601 format.

import numpy as np

np.datetime64('today')                         # numpy.datetime64('2023-09-17')
np.datetime_as_string(np.datetime64('today'))  # '2023-09-17'
str(np.datetime64('today'))                    # '2023-09-17'
Felicitation answered 18/9, 2023 at 6:10 Comment(0)
K
-3

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)
Killer answered 19/12, 2020 at 13:58 Comment(0)

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