1. Python built- in package Datetime has four objects: datetime, date, time and timedelta.
import datetime as dt
date_time = dt.datetime(2015, 3, 21, 22, 0, 0) #2015-03-21 22:00:00
date = dt.date(2015, 3, 22) #2015-03-22
time = dt.time(21, 30, 00) #21:30:00
time_delta = dt.timedelta(days=1) #1 day, 0:00:00
2. Datetime object has some useful methods, such as now, today, weekday, combine, strftime and
strptime.
import datetime as dt
now = dt.datetime.now() #2015-03-20 14:56:07.404000
today = dt.datetime.today() #2015-03-20 14:56:07.404000
weekday = now.weekday() #4, Mon=0, Sun=6
strftime = today.strftime('%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S.%f')
date = dt.date(2015, 3, 22)
time = dt.time(21, 30, 00)
combine = dt.datetime.combine(date, time) #2015-03-22 21:30:00
string = '2015-03-22 10:34:21.123'
format = '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f'
strptime = dt.datetime.strptime(string, format)
3. Timedelta is a useful object for date mathematics.
import datetime as dt
date_time = dt.datetime(2015, 3, 21, 22, 0, 0)
date = dt.date(2015, 3, 22)
time_delta = dt.timedelta(days=1, seconds=10)
date_time + time_delta #2015-03-22 22:00:10 type: datetime.datetime
date + time_delta #2015-03-22 type: datetime.date
#Note: timedelta object is only for datetime and date objects, not
for time object.
4. Use replace method to modify dates, times and datetimes.
import datetime as dt
date_time = dt.datetime(2015, 3, 21, 22, 0, 0)
replace = date_time.replace(year=2012, month=9) #2012-09-21 22:00:00
Author: Peng Xu
References:
https://docs.python.org/2/library/datetime.html
Sheppard, Kevin. "Introduction to Python for econometrics, statistics and data analysis.", University
of Oxford, version 2 (2014).