Python: Generate a date and time as a string

Last update on April 22 2025 12:49:01 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

41. DateTime String Generator

Write a Python program to generate a date and time as a string.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Import the datetime module
import datetime
# Get the current date and time
now = datetime.datetime.now()
# Convert the current date and time into a formatted string
# Date and time in string format: 2016-11-05 11:24:24 PM
datestr = "# In string: " + now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %p") + "\n"
# Print an empty line
print()
# Print the formatted string containing the current date and time
print(datestr)
# Print an empty line
print()

Output:

# In string: 2017-05-08 14:24:37 PM

Explanation:

In the exercise above,

The code imports the "datetime" module.
It gets the current date and time using "datetime.datetime.now()" function and assigns it to the variable 'now'.
It converts the current date and time into a formatted string using the "strftime()" method, which formats a "datetime" object as a string according to the given format string. In this case, it formats the date and time as "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS AM/PM" format.
It constructs a string 'datestr' containing the formatted date and time preceded by a note, and assigns it to 'datestr'.
It prints the string 'datestr', which contains the formatted current date and time.

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Python program to generate a string representation of the current datetime in "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" format.
Write a Python script that outputs a date and time string formatted as "Day, DD Month YYYY HH:MM:SS" using strftime.
Write a Python function to convert the current datetime into a customized string format and then print it.
Write a Python program to generate a datetime string in RFC 2822 format and then display it.

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