You can use now() function of datetime python module. This tutorial will show you various ways to get current date and time in the python script. Below example scripts to get date and time has been tested with Python 2.7 and Python 3.5 on Linux system.

Get Current Date Time in Python

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

import datetime

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

Let’s execute the script getDateTime1.py as following command.

rahul@tecadmin:~$ python getDateTime1.py 

2017-03-06 16:00:04.159338

Get Current Date Time Attributes in Python

You can also get the specific attribute of date and time. For example if you want to get only current year or month or date etc. create a getDateTime2.py file with following content, which will help you to understand to fetch specific attribute.

import datetime

currentDT = datetime.datetime.now()

print ("Current Year is: %d" % currentDT.year)
print ("Current Month is: %d" % currentDT.month)
print ("Current Day is: %d" % currentDT.day)
print ("Current Hour is: %d" % currentDT.hour)
print ("Current Minute is: %d" % currentDT.minute)
print ("Current Second is: %d" % currentDT.second)
print ("Current Microsecond is: %d" % currentDT.microsecond)

Now, execute script getDateTime2.py like below

rahul@tecadmin:~$ python getDateTime2.py 

Current Year is: 2017
Current Month is: 3
Current Day is: 6
Current Hour is: 16
Current Minute is: 6
Current Second is: 28

Get Formated Date Time in Python

Also, if you need date and time in specific format, you can specify directive to format date and time. Create getDateTime3.py file with following content. This example have some sample formated date and time outputs.

import datetime

currentDT = datetime.datetime.now()

print (currentDT.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"))
print (currentDT.strftime("%Y/%m/%d"))
print (currentDT.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))
print (currentDT.strftime("%I:%M:%S %p"))
print (currentDT.strftime("%a, %b %d, %Y"))

Now execute getDateTime3.py from command line

rahul@tecadmin:~$ python getDateTime3.py 

2017-03-06 16:13:59
2017/03/06
16:13:59
04:13:59 PM
Mon, Mar 06, 2017

Below is the list of directives can be used to format date and time output in your Python script.