8.1. datetime — Basic date and time types

New in version 2.3.

The datetime module supplies classes for manipulating dates and times in both simple and complex ways. While date and time arithmetic is supported, the focus of the implementation is on efficient attribute extraction for output formatting and manipulation. For related functionality, see also the time and calendar modules.

There are two kinds of date and time objects: “naive” and “aware”.

An aware object has sufficient knowledge of applicable algorithmic and political time adjustments, such as time zone and daylight saving time information, to locate itself relative to other aware objects. An aware object is used to represent a specific moment in time that is not open to interpretation [1].

A naive object does not contain enough information to unambiguously locate itself relative to other date/time objects. Whether a naive object represents Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), local time, or time in some other timezone is purely up to the program, just like it’s up to the program whether a particular number represents metres, miles, or mass. Naive objects are easy to understand and to work with, at the cost of ignoring some aspects of reality.

For applications requiring aware objects, datetime and time objects have an optional time zone information attribute, tzinfo, that can be set to an instance of a subclass of the abstract tzinfo class. These tzinfo objects capture information about the offset from UTC time, the time zone name, and whether Daylight Saving Time is in effect. Note that no concrete tzinfo classes are supplied by the datetime module. Supporting timezones at whatever level of detail is required is up to the application. The rules for time adjustment across the world are more political than rational, and there is no standard suitable for every application.

The datetime module exports the following constants:

datetime.MINYEAR

The smallest year number allowed in a date or datetime object. MINYEAR is 1.

datetime.MAXYEAR

The largest year number allowed in a date or datetime object. MAXYEAR is 9999.

See also

Module calendar

General calendar related functions.

Module time

Time access and conversions.

8.1.1. Available Types

class datetime.date

An idealized naive date, assuming the current Gregorian calendar always was, and always will be, in effect. Attributes: year, month, and day.

class datetime.time

An idealized time, independent of any particular day, assuming that every day has exactly 24*60*60 seconds (there is no notion of “leap seconds” here). Attributes: hour, minute, second, microsecond, and tzinfo.

class datetime.datetime

A combination of a date and a time. Attributes: year, month, day, hour, minute, second, microsecond, and tzinfo.

class datetime.timedelta

A duration expressing the difference between two date, time, or datetime instances to microsecond resolution.

class datetime.tzinfo

An abstract base class for time zone information objects. These are used by the datetime and time classes to provide a customizable notion of time adjustment (for example, to account for time zone and/or daylight saving time).

Objects of these types are immutable.

Objects of the date type are always naive.

An object of type time or datetime may be naive or aware. A datetime object d is aware if d.tzinfo is not None and d.tzinfo.utcoffset(d) does not return None. If d.tzinfo is None, or if d.tzinfo is not None but d.tzinfo.utcoffset(d) returns None, d is naive. A time object t is aware if t.tzinfo is not None and t.tzinfo.utcoffset(None) does not return None. Otherwise, t is naive.

The distinction between naive and aware doesn’t apply to timedelta objects.

Subclass relationships:

object
    timedelta
    tzinfo
    time
    date
        datetime

8.1.2. timedelta Objects

A timedelta object represents a duration, the difference between two dates or times.

class datetime.timedelta([days[, seconds[, microseconds[, milliseconds[, minutes[, hours[, weeks]]]]]]])

All arguments are optional and default to 0. Arguments may be ints, longs, or floats, and may be positive or negative.

Only days, seconds and microseconds are stored internally. Arguments are converted to those units:

• A millisecond is converted to 1000 microseconds.
• A minute is converted to 60 seconds.
• An hour is converted to 3600 seconds.
• A week is converted to 7 days.

and days, seconds and microseconds are then normalized so that the representation is unique, with

• 0 <= microseconds < 1000000
• 0 <= seconds < 3600*24 (the number of seconds in one day)
• -999999999 <= days <= 999999999

If any argument is a float and there are fractional microseconds, the fractional microseconds left over from all arguments are combined and their sum is rounded to the nearest microsecond. If no argument is a float, the conversion and normalization processes are exact (no information is lost).

If the normalized value of days lies outside the indicated range, OverflowError is raised.

Note that normalization of negative values may be surprising at first. For example,

>>> from datetime import timedelta
>>> d = timedelta(microseconds=-1)
>>> (d.days, d.seconds, d.microseconds)
(-1, 86399, 999999)

Class attributes are:

timedelta.min

The most negative timedelta object, timedelta(-999999999).

timedelta.max

The most positive timedelta object, timedelta(days=999999999, hours=23, minutes=59, seconds=59, microseconds=999999).

timedelta.resolution

The smallest possible difference between non-equal timedelta objects, timedelta(microseconds=1).

Note that, because of normalization, timedelta.max > -timedelta.min. -timedelta.max is not representable as a timedelta object.

Instance attributes (read-only):

Attribute	Value
days	Between -999999999 and 999999999 inclusive
seconds	Between 0 and 86399 inclusive
microseconds	Between 0 and 999999 inclusive

Supported operations:

Operation	Result
t1 = t2 + t3	Sum of t2 and t3. Afterwards t1-t2 == t3 and t1-t3 == t2 are true. (1)
t1 = t2 - t3	Difference of t2 and t3. Afterwards t1 == t2 - t3 and t2 == t1 + t3 are true. (1)
t1 = t2 * i or t1 = i * t2	Delta multiplied by an integer or long. Afterwards t1 // i == t2 is true, provided i != 0.
	In general, t1 * i == t1 * (i-1) + t1 is true. (1)
t1 = t2 // i	The floor is computed and the remainder (if any) is thrown away. (3)
+t1	Returns a timedelta object with the same value. (2)
-t1	equivalent to timedelta(-t1.days, -t1.seconds, -t1.microseconds), and to t1* -1. (1)(4)
abs(t)	equivalent to +t when t.days >= 0, and to -t when t.days < 0. (2)
str(t)	Returns a string in the form [D day[s], ][H]H:MM:SS[.UUUUUU], where D is negative for negative t. (5)
repr(t)	Returns a string in the form datetime.timedelta(D[, S[, U]]), where D is negative for negative t. (5)

Notes:

1. This is exact, but may overflow.

2. This is exact, and cannot overflow.

3. Division by 0 raises ZeroDivisionError.

4. -timedelta.max is not representable as a timedelta object.

5. String representations of timedelta objects are normalized similarly to their internal representation. This leads to somewhat unusual results for negative timedeltas. For example:

   >>> timedelta(hours=-5)
   datetime.timedelta(-1, 68400)
   >>> print(_)
   -1 day, 19:00:00
   

In addition to the operations listed above timedelta objects support certain additions and subtractions with date and datetime objects (see below).

Comparisons of timedelta objects are supported with the timedelta object representing the smaller duration considered to be the smaller timedelta. In order to stop mixed-type comparisons from falling back to the default comparison by object address, when a timedelta object is compared to an object of a different type, TypeError is raised unless the comparison is == or !=. The latter cases return False or True, respectively.

timedelta objects are hashable (usable as dictionary keys), support efficient pickling, and in Boolean contexts, a timedelta object is considered to be true if and only if it isn’t equal to timedelta(0).

Instance methods:

timedelta.total_seconds()

Return the total number of seconds contained in the duration. Equivalent to (td.microseconds + (td.seconds + td.days * 24 * 3600) * 10**6) / 10**6 computed with true division enabled.

Note that for very large time intervals (greater than 270 years on most platforms) this method will lose microsecond accuracy.

New in version 2.7.

Example usage:

>>> from datetime import timedelta
>>> year = timedelta(days=365)
>>> another_year = timedelta(weeks=40, days=84, hours=23,
...                          minutes=50, seconds=600)  # adds up to 365 days
>>> year.total_seconds()
31536000.0
>>> year == another_year
True
>>> ten_years = 10 * year
>>> ten_years, ten_years.days // 365
(datetime.timedelta(3650), 10)
>>> nine_years = ten_years - year
>>> nine_years, nine_years.days // 365
(datetime.timedelta(3285), 9)
>>> three_years = nine_years // 3;
>>> three_years, three_years.days // 365
(datetime.timedelta(1095), 3)
>>> abs(three_years - ten_years) == 2 * three_years + year
True

8.1.3. date Objects

A date object represents a date (year, month and day) in an idealized calendar, the current Gregorian calendar indefinitely extended in both directions. January 1 of year 1 is called day number 1, January 2 of year 1 is called day number 2, and so on. This matches the definition of the “proleptic Gregorian” calendar in Dershowitz and Reingold’s book Calendrical Calculations, where it’s the base calendar for all computations. See the book for algorithms for converting between proleptic Gregorian ordinals and many other calendar systems.

class datetime.date(year, month, day)

All arguments are required. Arguments may be ints or longs, in the following ranges:

• MINYEAR <= year <= MAXYEAR
• 1 <= month <= 12
• 1 <= day <= number of days in the given month and year

If an argument outside those ranges is given, ValueError is raised.

Other constructors, all class methods:

classmethod date.today()

Return the current local date. This is equivalent to date.fromtimestamp(time.time()).

classmethod date.fromtimestamp(timestamp)

Return the local date corresponding to the POSIX timestamp, such as is returned by time.time(). This may raise ValueError, if the timestamp is out of the range of values supported by the platform C localtime() function. It’s common for this to be restricted to years from 1970 through 2038. Note that on non-POSIX systems that include leap seconds in their notion of a timestamp, leap seconds are ignored by fromtimestamp().

classmethod date.fromordinal(ordinal)

Return the date corresponding to the proleptic Gregorian ordinal, where January 1 of year 1 has ordinal 1. ValueError is raised unless 1 <= ordinal <= date.max.toordinal(). For any date d, date.fromordinal(d.toordinal()) == d.

Class attributes:

date.min

The earliest representable date, date(MINYEAR, 1, 1).

date.max

The latest representable date, date(MAXYEAR, 12, 31).

date.resolution

The smallest possible difference between non-equal date objects, timedelta(days=1).

Instance attributes (read-only):

date.year

Between MINYEAR and MAXYEAR inclusive.

date.month

Between 1 and 12 inclusive.

date.day

Between 1 and the number of days in the given month of the given year.

Supported operations:

Operation	Result
date2 = date1 + timedelta	date2 is timedelta.days days removed from date1. (1)
date2 = date1 - timedelta	Computes date2 such that date2 + timedelta == date1. (2)
timedelta = date1 - date2	(3)
date1 < date2	date1 is considered less than date2 when date1 precedes date2 in time. (4)

Notes:

1. date2 is moved forward in time if timedelta.days > 0, or backward if timedelta.days < 0. Afterward date2 - date1 == timedelta.days. timedelta.seconds and timedelta.microseconds are ignored. OverflowError is raised if date2.year would be smaller than MINYEAR or larger than MAXYEAR.
2. This isn’t quite equivalent to date1 + (-timedelta), because -timedelta in isolation can overflow in cases where date1 - timedelta does not. timedelta.seconds and timedelta.microseconds are ignored.
3. This is exact, and cannot overflow. timedelta.seconds and timedelta.microseconds are 0, and date2 + timedelta == date1 after.
4. In other words, date1 < date2 if and only if date1.toordinal() < date2.toordinal(). In order to stop comparison from falling back to the default scheme of comparing object addresses, date comparison normally raises TypeError if the other comparand isn’t also a date object. However, NotImplemented is returned instead if the other comparand has a timetuple() attribute. This hook gives other kinds of date objects a chance at implementing mixed-type comparison. If not, when a date object is compared to an object of a different type, TypeError is raised unless the comparison is == or !=. The latter cases return False or True, respectively.

Dates can be used as dictionary keys. In Boolean contexts, all date objects are considered to be true.

Instance methods:

date.replace(year, month, day)

Return a date with the same value, except for those parameters given new values by whichever keyword arguments are specified. For example, if d == date(2002, 12, 31), then d.replace(day=26) == date(2002, 12, 26).

date.timetuple()

Return a time.struct_time such as returned by time.localtime(). The hours, minutes and seconds are 0, and the DST flag is -1. d.timetuple() is equivalent to time.struct_time((d.year, d.month, d.day, 0, 0, 0, d.weekday(), yday, -1)), where yday = d.toordinal() - date(d.year, 1, 1).toordinal() + 1 is the day number within the current year starting with 1 for January 1st.

date.toordinal()

Return the proleptic Gregorian ordinal of the date, where January 1 of year 1 has ordinal 1. For any date object d, date.fromordinal(d.toordinal()) == d.

date.weekday()

Return the day of the week as an integer, where Monday is 0 and Sunday is 6. For example, date(2002, 12, 4).weekday() == 2, a Wednesday. See also isoweekday().

date.isoweekday()

Return the day of the week as an integer, where Monday is 1 and Sunday is 7. For example, date(2002, 12, 4).isoweekday() == 3, a Wednesday. See also weekday(), isocalendar().

date.isocalendar()

Return a 3-tuple, (ISO year, ISO week number, ISO weekday).

The ISO calendar is a widely used variant of the Gregorian calendar. See https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/calendar/isocalendar.htm for a good explanation.

The ISO year consists of 52 or 53 full weeks, and where a week starts on a Monday and ends on a Sunday. The first week of an ISO year is the first (Gregorian) calendar week of a year containing a Thursday. This is called week number 1, and the ISO year of that Thursday is the same as its Gregorian year.

For example, 2004 begins on a Thursday, so the first week of ISO year 2004 begins on Monday, 29 Dec 2003 and ends on Sunday, 4 Jan 2004, so that date(2003, 12, 29).isocalendar() == (2004, 1, 1) and date(2004, 1, 4).isocalendar() == (2004, 1, 7).

date.isoformat()

Return a string representing the date in ISO 8601 format, ‘YYYY-MM-DD’. For example, date(2002, 12, 4).isoformat() == '2002-12-04'.

date.__str__()

For a date d, str(d) is equivalent to d.isoformat().

date.ctime()

Return a string representing the date, for example date(2002, 12, 4).ctime() == 'Wed Dec 4 00:00:00 2002'. d.ctime() is equivalent to time.ctime(time.mktime(d.timetuple())) on platforms where the native C ctime() function (which time.ctime() invokes, but which date.ctime() does not invoke) conforms to the C standard.

date.strftime(format)

Return a string representing the date, controlled by an explicit format string. Format codes referring to hours, minutes or seconds will see 0 values. For a complete list of formatting directives, see section strftime() and strptime() Behavior.

date.__format__(format)

Same as date.strftime(). This makes it possible to specify a format string for a date object when using str.format(). See section strftime() and strptime() Behavior.

Example of counting days to an event:

>>> import time
>>> from datetime import date
>>> today = date.today()
>>> today
datetime.date(2007, 12, 5)
>>> today == date.fromtimestamp(time.time())
True
>>> my_birthday = date(today.year, 6, 24)
>>> if my_birthday < today:
...     my_birthday = my_birthday.replace(year=today.year + 1)
>>> my_birthday
datetime.date(2008, 6, 24)
>>> time_to_birthday = abs(my_birthday - today)
>>> time_to_birthday.days
202

Example of working with date:

>>> from datetime import date
>>> d = date.fromordinal(730920) # 730920th day after 1. 1. 0001
>>> d
datetime.date(2002, 3, 11)
>>> t = d.timetuple()
>>> for i in t:     
...     print i
2002                # year
3                   # month
11                  # day
0
0
0
0                   # weekday (0 = Monday)
70                  # 70th day in the year
-1
>>> ic = d.isocalendar()
>>> for i in ic:    
...     print i
2002                # ISO year
11                  # ISO week number
1                   # ISO day number ( 1 = Monday )
>>> d.isoformat()
'2002-03-11'
>>> d.strftime("%d/%m/%y")
'11/03/02'
>>> d.strftime("%A %d. %B %Y")
'Monday 11. March 2002'
>>> 'The {1} is {0:%d}, the {2} is {0:%B}.'.format(d, "day", "month")
'The day is 11, the month is March.'

8.1.4. datetime Objects

A datetime object is a single object containing all the information from a date object and a time object. Like a date object, datetime assumes the current Gregorian calendar extended in both directions; like a time object, datetime assumes there are exactly 3600*24 seconds in every day.

Constructor:

class datetime.datetime(year, month, day[, hour[, minute[, second[, microsecond[, tzinfo]]]]])

The year, month and day arguments are required. tzinfo may be None, or an instance of a tzinfo subclass. The remaining arguments may be ints or longs, in the following ranges:

• MINYEAR <= year <= MAXYEAR
• 1 <= month <= 12
• 1 <= day <= number of days in the given month and year
• 0 <= hour < 24
• 0 <= minute < 60
• 0 <= second < 60
• 0 <= microsecond < 1000000

If an argument outside those ranges is given, ValueError is raised.

Other constructors, all class methods:

classmethod datetime.today()

Return the current local datetime, with tzinfo None. This is equivalent to datetime.fromtimestamp(time.time()). See also now(), fromtimestamp().

classmethod datetime.now([tz])

Return the current local date and time. If optional argument tz is None or not specified, this is like today(), but, if possible, supplies more precision than can be gotten from going through a time.time() timestamp (for example, this may be possible on platforms supplying the C gettimeofday() function).

If tz is not None, it must be an instance of a tzinfo subclass, and the current date and time are converted to tz’s time zone. In this case the result is equivalent to tz.fromutc(datetime.utcnow().replace(tzinfo=tz)). See also today(), utcnow().

classmethod datetime.utcnow()

Return the current UTC date and time, with tzinfo None. This is like now(), but returns the current UTC date and time, as a naive datetime object. See also now().

classmethod datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp[, tz])

Return the local date and time corresponding to the POSIX timestamp, such as is returned by time.time(). If optional argument tz is None or not specified, the timestamp is converted to the platform’s local date and time, and the returned datetime object is naive.

If tz is not None, it must be an instance of a tzinfo subclass, and the timestamp is converted to tz’s time zone. In this case the result is equivalent to tz.fromutc(datetime.utcfromtimestamp(timestamp).replace(tzinfo=tz)).

fromtimestamp() may raise ValueError, if the timestamp is out of the range of values supported by the platform C localtime() or gmtime() functions. It’s common for this to be restricted to years in 1970 through 2038. Note that on non-POSIX systems that include leap seconds in their notion of a timestamp, leap seconds are ignored by fromtimestamp(), and then it’s possible to have two timestamps differing by a second that yield identical datetime objects. See also utcfromtimestamp().

classmethod datetime.utcfromtimestamp(timestamp)

Return the UTC datetime corresponding to the POSIX timestamp, with tzinfo None. This may raise ValueError, if the timestamp is out of the range of values supported by the platform C gmtime() function. It’s common for this to be restricted to years in 1970 through 2038. See also fromtimestamp().

classmethod datetime.fromordinal(ordinal)

Return the datetime corresponding to the proleptic Gregorian ordinal, where January 1 of year 1 has ordinal 1. ValueError is raised unless 1 <= ordinal <= datetime.max.toordinal(). The hour, minute, second and microsecond of the result are all 0, and tzinfo is None.

classmethod datetime.combine(date, time)

Return a new datetime object whose date components are equal to the given date object’s, and whose time components and tzinfo attributes are equal to the given time object’s. For any datetime object d, d == datetime.combine(d.date(), d.timetz()). If date is a datetime object, its time components and tzinfo attributes are ignored.

classmethod datetime.strptime(date_string, format)

Return a datetime corresponding to date_string, parsed according to format. This is equivalent to datetime(*(time.strptime(date_string, format)[0:6])). ValueError is raised if the date_string and format can’t be parsed by time.strptime() or if it returns a value which isn’t a time tuple. For a complete list of formatting directives, see section strftime() and strptime() Behavior.

New in version 2.5.

Class attributes:

datetime.min

The earliest representable datetime, datetime(MINYEAR, 1, 1, tzinfo=None).

datetime.max

The latest representable datetime, datetime(MAXYEAR, 12, 31, 23, 59, 59, 999999, tzinfo=None).

datetime.resolution

The smallest possible difference between non-equal datetime objects, timedelta(microseconds=1).

Instance attributes (read-only):

datetime.year

Between MINYEAR and MAXYEAR inclusive.

datetime.month

Between 1 and 12 inclusive.

datetime.day

Between 1 and the number of days in the given month of the given year.

datetime.hour

In range(24).

datetime.minute

In range(60).

datetime.second

In range(60).

datetime.microsecond

In range(1000000).

datetime.tzinfo

The object passed as the tzinfo argument to the datetime constructor, or None if none was passed.

Supported operations:

Operation	Result
datetime2 = datetime1 + timedelta	(1)
datetime2 = datetime1 - timedelta	(2)
timedelta = datetime1 - datetime2	(3)
datetime1 < datetime2	Compares datetime to datetime. (4)

1. datetime2 is a duration of timedelta removed from datetime1, moving forward in time if timedelta.days > 0, or backward if timedelta.days < 0. The result has the same tzinfo attribute as the input datetime, and datetime2 - datetime1 == timedelta after. OverflowError is raised if datetime2.year would be smaller than MINYEAR or larger than MAXYEAR. Note that no time zone adjustments are done even if the input is an aware object.

2. Computes the datetime2 such that datetime2 + timedelta == datetime1. As for addition, the result has the same tzinfo attribute as the input datetime, and no time zone adjustments are done even if the input is aware. This isn’t quite equivalent to datetime1 + (-timedelta), because -timedelta in isolation can overflow in cases where datetime1 - timedelta does not.

3. Subtraction of a datetime from a datetime is defined only if both operands are naive, or if both are aware. If one is aware and the other is naive, TypeError is raised.

   If both are naive, or both are aware and have the same tzinfo attribute, the tzinfo attributes are ignored, and the result is a timedelta object t such that datetime2 + t == datetime1. No time zone adjustments are done in this case.

   If both are aware and have different tzinfo attributes, a-b acts as if a and b were first converted to naive UTC datetimes first. The result is (a.replace(tzinfo=None) - a.utcoffset()) - (b.replace(tzinfo=None) - b.utcoffset()) except that the implementation never overflows.

4. datetime1 is considered less than datetime2 when datetime1 precedes datetime2 in time.

   If one comparand is naive and the other is aware, TypeError is raised. If both comparands are aware, and have the same tzinfo attribute, the common tzinfo attribute is ignored and the base datetimes are compared. If both comparands are aware and have different tzinfo attributes, the comparands are first adjusted by subtracting their UTC offsets (obtained from self.utcoffset()).

   Note

   In order to stop comparison from falling back to the default scheme of comparing object addresses, datetime comparison normally raises TypeError if the other comparand isn’t also a datetime object. However, NotImplemented is returned instead if the other comparand has a timetuple() attribute. This hook gives other kinds of date objects a chance at implementing mixed-type comparison. If not, when a datetime object is compared to an object of a different type, TypeError is raised unless the comparison is == or !=. The latter cases return False or True, respectively.

datetime objects can be used as dictionary keys. In Boolean contexts, all datetime objects are considered to be true.

Instance methods:

datetime.date()

Return date object with same year, month and day.

datetime.time()

Return time object with same hour, minute, second and microsecond. tzinfo is None. See also method timetz().

datetime.timetz()

Return time object with same hour, minute, second, microsecond, and tzinfo attributes. See also method time().

datetime.replace([year[, month[, day[, hour[, minute[, second[, microsecond[, tzinfo]]]]]]]])

Return a datetime with the same attributes, except for those attributes given new values by whichever keyword arguments are specified. Note that tzinfo=None can be specified to create a naive datetime from an aware datetime with no conversion of date and time data.

datetime.astimezone(tz)

Return a datetime object with new tzinfo attribute tz, adjusting the date and time data so the result is the same UTC time as self, but in tz’s local time.

tz must be an instance of a tzinfo subclass, and its utcoffset() and dst() methods must not return None. self must be aware (self.tzinfo must not be None, and self.utcoffset() must not return None).

If self.tzinfo is tz, self.astimezone(tz) is equal to self: no adjustment of date or time data is performed. Else the result is local time in time zone tz, representing the same UTC time as self: after astz = dt.astimezone(tz), astz - astz.utcoffset() will usually have the same date and time data as dt - dt.utcoffset(). The discussion of class tzinfo explains the cases at Daylight Saving Time transition boundaries where this cannot be achieved (an issue only if tz models both standard and daylight time).

If you merely want to attach a time zone object tz to a datetime dt without adjustment of date and time data, use dt.replace(tzinfo=tz). If you merely want to remove the time zone object from an aware datetime dt without conversion of date and time data, use dt.replace(tzinfo=None).

Note that the default tzinfo.fromutc() method can be overridden in a tzinfo subclass to affect the result returned by astimezone(). Ignoring error cases, astimezone() acts like:

def astimezone(self, tz):
    if self.tzinfo is tz:
        return self
    # Convert self to UTC, and attach the new time zone object.
    utc = (self - self.utcoffset()).replace(tzinfo=tz)
    # Convert from UTC to tz's local time.
    return tz.fromutc(utc)

datetime.utcoffset()

If tzinfo is None, returns None, else returns self.tzinfo.utcoffset(self), and raises an exception if the latter doesn’t return None, or a timedelta object representing a whole number of minutes with magnitude less than one day.

datetime.dst()

If tzinfo is None, returns None, else returns self.tzinfo.dst(self), and raises an exception if the latter doesn’t return None, or a timedelta object representing a whole number of minutes with magnitude less than one day.

datetime.tzname()

If tzinfo is None, returns None, else returns self.tzinfo.tzname(self), raises an exception if the latter doesn’t return None or a string object,

datetime.timetuple()

Return a time.struct_time such as returned by time.localtime(). d.timetuple() is equivalent to time.struct_time((d.year, d.month, d.day, d.hour, d.minute, d.second, d.weekday(), yday, dst)), where yday = d.toordinal() - date(d.year, 1, 1).toordinal() + 1 is the day number within the current year starting with 1 for January 1st. The tm_isdst flag of the result is set according to the dst() method: tzinfo is None or dst() returns None, tm_isdst is set to -1; else if dst() returns a non-zero value, tm_isdst is set to 1; else tm_isdst is set to 0.

datetime.utctimetuple()

If datetime instance d is naive, this is the same as d.timetuple() except that tm_isdst is forced to 0 regardless of what d.dst() returns. DST is never in effect for a UTC time.

If d is aware, d is normalized to UTC time, by subtracting d.utcoffset(), and a time.struct_time for the normalized time is returned. tm_isdst is forced to 0. Note that the result’s tm_year member may be MINYEAR-1 or MAXYEAR+1, if d.year was MINYEAR or MAXYEAR and UTC adjustment spills over a year boundary.

datetime.toordinal()

Return the proleptic Gregorian ordinal of the date. The same as self.date().toordinal().

datetime.weekday()

Return the day of the week as an integer, where Monday is 0 and Sunday is 6. The same as self.date().weekday(). See also isoweekday().

datetime.isoweekday()

Return the day of the week as an integer, where Monday is 1 and Sunday is 7. The same as self.date().isoweekday(). See also weekday(), isocalendar().

datetime.isocalendar()

Return a 3-tuple, (ISO year, ISO week number, ISO weekday). The same as self.date().isocalendar().

datetime.isoformat([sep])

Return a string representing the date and time in ISO 8601 format, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.mmmmmm or, if microsecond is 0, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS

If utcoffset() does not return None, a 6-character string is appended, giving the UTC offset in (signed) hours and minutes: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.mmmmmm+HH:MM or, if microsecond is 0 YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+HH:MM

The optional argument sep (default 'T') is a one-character separator, placed between the date and time portions of the result. For example,

>>> from datetime import tzinfo, timedelta, datetime
>>> class TZ(tzinfo):
...     def utcoffset(self, dt): return timedelta(minutes=-399)
...
>>> datetime(2002, 12, 25, tzinfo=TZ()).isoformat(' ')
'2002-12-25 00:00:00-06:39'

datetime.__str__()

For a datetime instance d, str(d) is equivalent to d.isoformat(' ').

datetime.ctime()

Return a string representing the date and time, for example datetime(2002, 12, 4, 20, 30, 40).ctime() == 'Wed Dec  4 20:30:40 2002'. d.ctime() is equivalent to time.ctime(time.mktime(d.timetuple())) on platforms where the native C ctime() function (which time.ctime() invokes, but which datetime.ctime() does not invoke) conforms to the C standard.

datetime.strftime(format)

Return a string representing the date and time, controlled by an explicit format string. For a complete list of formatting directives, see section strftime() and strptime() Behavior.

datetime.__format__(format)

Same as datetime.strftime(). This makes it possible to specify a format string for a datetime object when using str.format(). See section strftime() and strptime() Behavior.

Examples of working with datetime objects:

>>> from datetime import datetime, date, time
>>> # Using datetime.combine()
>>> d = date(2005, 7, 14)
>>> t = time(12, 30)
>>> datetime.combine(d, t)
datetime.datetime(2005, 7, 14, 12, 30)
>>> # Using datetime.now() or datetime.utcnow()
>>> datetime.now()   
datetime.datetime(2007, 12, 6, 16, 29, 43, 79043)   # GMT +1
>>> datetime.utcnow()   
datetime.datetime(2007, 12, 6, 15, 29, 43, 79060)
>>> # Using datetime.strptime()
>>> dt = datetime.strptime("21/11/06 16:30", "%d/%m/%y %H:%M")
>>> dt
datetime.datetime(2006, 11, 21, 16, 30)
>>> # Using datetime.timetuple() to get tuple of all attributes
>>> tt = dt.timetuple()
>>> for it in tt:   
...     print it
...
2006    # year
11      # month
21      # day
16      # hour
30      # minute
0       # second
1       # weekday (0 = Monday)
325     # number of days since 1st January
-1      # dst - method tzinfo.dst() returned None
>>> # Date in ISO format
>>> ic = dt.isocalendar()
>>> for it in ic:   
...     print it
...
2006    # ISO year
47      # ISO week
2       # ISO weekday
>>> # Formatting datetime
>>> dt.strftime("%A, %d. %B %Y %I:%M%p")
'Tuesday, 21. November 2006 04:30PM'
>>> 'The {1} is {0:%d}, the {2} is {0:%B}, the {3} is {0:%I:%M%p}.'.format(dt, "day", "month", "time")
'The day is 21, the month is November, the time is 04:30PM.'

Using datetime with tzinfo:

>>> from datetime import timedelta, datetime, tzinfo
>>> class GMT1(tzinfo):
...     def utcoffset(self, dt):
...         return timedelta(hours=1) + self.dst(dt)
...     def dst(self, dt):
...         # DST starts last Sunday in March
...         d = datetime(dt.year, 4, 1)   # ends last Sunday in October
...         self.dston = d - timedelta(days=d.weekday() + 1)
...         d = datetime(dt.year, 11, 1)
...         self.dstoff = d - timedelta(days=d.weekday() + 1)
...         if self.dston <=  dt.replace(tzinfo=None) < self.dstoff:
...             return timedelta(hours=1)
...         else:
...             return timedelta(0)
...     def tzname(self,dt):
...          return "GMT +1"
...
>>> class GMT2(tzinfo):
...     def utcoffset(self, dt):
...         return timedelta(hours=2) + self.dst(dt)
...     def dst(self, dt):
...         d = datetime(dt.year, 4, 1)
...         self.dston = d - timedelta(days=d.weekday() + 1)
...         d = datetime(dt.year, 11, 1)
...         self.dstoff = d - timedelta(days=d.weekday() + 1)
...         if self.dston <=  dt.replace(tzinfo=None) < self.dstoff:
...             return timedelta(hours=1)
...         else:
...             return timedelta(0)
...     def tzname(self,dt):
...         return "GMT +2"
...
>>> gmt1 = GMT1()
>>> # Daylight Saving Time
>>> dt1 = datetime(2006, 11, 21, 16, 30, tzinfo=gmt1)
>>> dt1.dst()
datetime.timedelta(0)
>>> dt1.utcoffset()
datetime.timedelta(0, 3600)
>>> dt2 = datetime(2006, 6, 14, 13, 0, tzinfo=gmt1)
>>> dt2.dst()
datetime.timedelta(0, 3600)
>>> dt2.utcoffset()
datetime.timedelta(0, 7200)
>>> # Convert datetime to another time zone
>>> dt3 = dt2.astimezone(GMT2())
>>> dt3     # doctest: +ELLIPSIS
datetime.datetime(2006, 6, 14, 14, 0, tzinfo=<GMT2 object at 0x...>)
>>> dt2     # doctest: +ELLIPSIS
datetime.datetime(2006, 6, 14, 13, 0, tzinfo=<GMT1 object at 0x...>)
>>> dt2.utctimetuple() == dt3.utctimetuple()
True

8.1.5. time Objects

A time object represents a (local) time of day, independent of any particular day, and subject to adjustment via a tzinfo object.

class datetime.time([hour[, minute[, second[, microsecond[, tzinfo]]]]])

All arguments are optional. tzinfo may be None, or an instance of a tzinfo subclass. The remaining arguments may be ints or longs, in the following ranges:

• 0 <= hour < 24
• 0 <= minute < 60
• 0 <= second < 60
• 0 <= microsecond < 1000000.

If an argument outside those ranges is given, ValueError is raised. All default to 0 except tzinfo, which defaults to None.

Class attributes:

time.min

The earliest representable time, time(0, 0, 0, 0).

time.max

The latest representable time, time(23, 59, 59, 999999).

time.resolution

The smallest possible difference between non-equal time objects, timedelta(microseconds=1), although note that arithmetic on time objects is not supported.

Instance attributes (read-only):

time.hour

In range(24).

time.minute

In range(60).

time.second

In range(60).

time.microsecond

In range(1000000).

time.tzinfo

The object passed as the tzinfo argument to the time constructor, or None if none was passed.

Supported operations:

• comparison of time to time, where a is considered less than b when a precedes b in time. If one comparand is naive and the other is aware, TypeError is raised. If both comparands are aware, and have the same tzinfo attribute, the common tzinfo attribute is ignored and the base times are compared. If both comparands are aware and have different tzinfo attributes, the comparands are first adjusted by subtracting their UTC offsets (obtained from self.utcoffset()). In order to stop mixed-type comparisons from falling back to the default comparison by object address, when a time object is compared to an object of a different type, TypeError is raised unless the comparison is == or !=. The latter cases return False or True, respectively.
• hash, use as dict key
• efficient pickling
• in Boolean contexts, a time object is considered to be true if and only if, after converting it to minutes and subtracting utcoffset() (or 0 if that’s None), the result is non-zero.

Instance methods:

time.replace([hour[, minute[, second[, microsecond[, tzinfo]]]]])

Return a time with the same value, except for those attributes given new values by whichever keyword arguments are specified. Note that tzinfo=None can be specified to create a naive time from an aware time, without conversion of the time data.

time.isoformat()

Return a string representing the time in ISO 8601 format, HH:MM:SS.mmmmmm or, if self.microsecond is 0, HH:MM:SS If utcoffset() does not return None, a 6-character string is appended, giving the UTC offset in (signed) hours and minutes: HH:MM:SS.mmmmmm+HH:MM or, if self.microsecond is 0, HH:MM:SS+HH:MM

time.__str__()

For a time t, str(t) is equivalent to t.isoformat().

time.strftime(format)

Return a string representing the time, controlled by an explicit format string. For a complete list of formatting directives, see section strftime() and strptime() Behavior.

time.__format__(format)

Same as time.strftime(). This makes it possible to specify a format string for a time object when using str.format(). See section strftime() and strptime() Behavior.

time.utcoffset()

If tzinfo is None, returns None, else returns self.tzinfo.utcoffset(None), and raises an exception if the latter doesn’t return None or a timedelta object representing a whole number of minutes with magnitude less than one day.

time.dst()

If tzinfo is None, returns None, else returns self.tzinfo.dst(None), and raises an exception if the latter doesn’t return None, or a timedelta object representing a whole number of minutes with magnitude less than one day.

time.tzname()

If tzinfo is None, returns None, else returns self.tzinfo.tzname(None), or raises an exception if the latter doesn’t return None or a string object.

Example:

>>> from datetime import time, tzinfo, timedelta
>>> class GMT1(tzinfo):
...     def utcoffset(self, dt):
...         return timedelta(hours=1)
...     def dst(self, dt):
...         return timedelta(0)
...     def tzname(self,dt):
...         return "Europe/Prague"
...
>>> t = time(12, 10, 30, tzinfo=GMT1())
>>> t                               # doctest: +ELLIPSIS
datetime.time(12, 10, 30, tzinfo=<GMT1 object at 0x...>)
>>> gmt = GMT1()
>>> t.isoformat()
'12:10:30+01:00'
>>> t.dst()
datetime.timedelta(0)
>>> t.tzname()
'Europe/Prague'
>>> t.strftime("%H:%M:%S %Z")
'12:10:30 Europe/Prague'
>>> 'The {} is {:%H:%M}.'.format("time", t)
'The time is 12:10.'

8.1.6. tzinfo Objects

class datetime.tzinfo

This is an abstract base class, meaning that this class should not be instantiated directly. You need to derive a concrete subclass, and (at least) supply implementations of the standard tzinfo methods needed by the datetime methods you use. The datetime module does not supply any concrete subclasses of tzinfo.

An instance of (a concrete subclass of) tzinfo can be passed to the constructors for datetime and time objects. The latter objects view their attributes as being in local time, and the tzinfo object supports methods revealing offset of local time from UTC, the name of the time zone, and DST offset, all relative to a date or time object passed to them.

Special requirement for pickling: A tzinfo subclass must have an __init__() method that can be called with no arguments, else it can be pickled but possibly not unpickled again. This is a technical requirement that may be relaxed in the future.

A concrete subclass of tzinfo may need to implement the following methods. Exactly which methods are needed depends on the uses made of aware datetime objects. If in doubt, simply implement all of them.

tzinfo.utcoffset(self, dt)

Return offset of local time from UTC, in minutes east of UTC. If local time is west of UTC, this should be negative. Note that this is intended to be the total offset from UTC; for example, if a tzinfo object represents both time zone and DST adjustments, utcoffset() should return their sum. If the UTC offset isn’t known, return None. Else the value returned must be a timedelta object specifying a whole number of minutes in the range -1439 to 1439 inclusive (1440 = 24*60; the magnitude of the offset must be less than one day). Most implementations of utcoffset() will probably look like one of these two:

return CONSTANT                 # fixed-offset class
return CONSTANT + self.dst(dt)  # daylight-aware class

If utcoffset() does not return None, dst() should not return None either.

The default implementation of utcoffset() raises NotImplementedError.

tzinfo.dst(self, dt)

Return the daylight saving time (DST) adjustment, in minutes east of UTC, or None if DST information isn’t known. Return timedelta(0) if DST is not in effect. If DST is in effect, return the offset as a timedelta object (see utcoffset() for details). Note that DST offset, if applicable, has already been added to the UTC offset returned by utcoffset(), so there’s no need to consult dst() unless you’re interested in obtaining DST info separately. For example, datetime.timetuple() calls its tzinfo attribute’s dst() method to determine how the tm_isdst flag should be set, and tzinfo.fromutc() calls dst() to account for DST changes when crossing time zones.

An instance tz of a tzinfo subclass that models both standard and daylight times must be consistent in this sense:

tz.utcoffset(dt) - tz.dst(dt)

must return the same result for every datetime dt with dt.tzinfo == tz For sane tzinfo subclasses, this expression yields the time zone’s “standard offset”, which should not depend on the date or the time, but only on geographic location. The implementation of datetime.astimezone() relies on this, but cannot detect violations; it’s the programmer’s responsibility to ensure it. If a tzinfo subclass cannot guarantee this, it may be able to override the default implementation of tzinfo.fromutc() to work correctly with astimezone() regardless.

Most implementations of dst() will probably look like one of these two:

def dst(self, dt):
    # a fixed-offset class:  doesn't account for DST
    return timedelta(0)

or

def dst(self, dt):
    # Code to set dston and dstoff to the time zone's DST
    # transition times based on the input dt.year, and expressed
    # in standard local time.  Then

    if dston <= dt.replace(tzinfo=None) < dstoff:
        return timedelta(hours=1)
    else:
        return timedelta(0)

The default implementation of dst() raises NotImplementedError.

tzinfo.tzname(self, dt)

Return the time zone name corresponding to the datetime object dt, as a string. Nothing about string names is defined by the datetime module, and there’s no requirement that it mean anything in particular. For example, “GMT”, “UTC”, “-500”, “-5:00”, “EDT”, “US/Eastern”, “America/New York” are all valid replies. Return None if a string name isn’t known. Note that this is a method rather than a fixed string primarily because some tzinfo subclasses will wish to return different names depending on the specific value of dt passed, especially if the tzinfo class is accounting for daylight time.

The default implementation of tzname() raises NotImplementedError.

These methods are called by a datetime or time object, in response to their methods of the same names. A datetime object passes itself as the argument, and a time object passes None as the argument. A tzinfo subclass’s methods should therefore be prepared to accept a dt argument of None, or of class datetime.

When None is passed, it’s up to the class designer to decide the best response. For example, returning None is appropriate if the class wishes to say that time objects don’t participate in the tzinfo protocols. It may be more useful for utcoffset(None) to return the standard UTC offset, as there is no other convention for discovering the standard offset.

When a datetime object is passed in response to a datetime method, dt.tzinfo is the same object as self. tzinfo methods can rely on this, unless user code calls tzinfo methods directly. The intent is that the tzinfo methods interpret dt as being in local time, and not need worry about objects in other timezones.

There is one more tzinfo method that a subclass may wish to override:

tzinfo.fromutc(self, dt)

This is called from the default datetime.astimezone() implementation. When called from that, dt.tzinfo is self, and dt’s date and time data are to be viewed as expressing a UTC time. The purpose of fromutc() is to adjust the date and time data, returning an equivalent datetime in self’s local time.

Most tzinfo subclasses should be able to inherit the default fromutc() implementation without problems. It’s strong enough to handle fixed-offset time zones, and time zones accounting for both standard and daylight time, and the latter even if the DST transition times differ in different years. An example of a time zone the default fromutc() implementation may not handle correctly in all cases is one where the standard offset (from UTC) depends on the specific date and time passed, which can happen for political reasons. The default implementations of astimezone() and fromutc() may not produce the result you want if the result is one of the hours straddling the moment the standard offset changes.

Skipping code for error cases, the default fromutc() implementation acts like:

def fromutc(self, dt):
    # raise ValueError error if dt.tzinfo is not self
    dtoff = dt.utcoffset()
    dtdst = dt.dst()
    # raise ValueError if dtoff is None or dtdst is None
    delta = dtoff - dtdst  # this is self's standard offset
    if delta:
        dt += delta   # convert to standard local time
        dtdst = dt.dst()
        # raise ValueError if dtdst is None
    if dtdst:
        return dt + dtdst
    else:
        return dt

Example tzinfo classes:

from datetime import tzinfo, timedelta, datetime

ZERO = timedelta(0)
HOUR = timedelta(hours=1)

# A UTC class.

class UTC(tzinfo):
    """UTC"""

    def utcoffset(self, dt):
        return ZERO

    def tzname(self, dt):
        return "UTC"

    def dst(self, dt):
        return ZERO

utc = UTC()

# A class building tzinfo objects for fixed-offset time zones.
# Note that FixedOffset(0, "UTC") is a different way to build a
# UTC tzinfo object.

class FixedOffset(tzinfo):
    """Fixed offset in minutes east from UTC."""

    def __init__(self, offset, name):
        self.__offset = timedelta(minutes = offset)
        self.__name = name

    def utcoffset(self, dt):
        return self.__offset

    def tzname(self, dt):
        return self.__name

    def dst(self, dt):
        return ZERO

# A class capturing the platform's idea of local time.

import time as _time

STDOFFSET = timedelta(seconds = -_time.timezone)
if _time.daylight:
    DSTOFFSET = timedelta(seconds = -_time.altzone)
else:
    DSTOFFSET = STDOFFSET

DSTDIFF = DSTOFFSET - STDOFFSET

class LocalTimezone(tzinfo):

    def utcoffset(self, dt):
        if self._isdst(dt):
            return DSTOFFSET
        else:
            return STDOFFSET

    def dst(self, dt):
        if self._isdst(dt):
            return DSTDIFF
        else:
            return ZERO

    def tzname(self, dt):
        return _time.tzname[self._isdst(dt)]

    def _isdst(self, dt):
        tt = (dt.year, dt.month, dt.day,
              dt.hour, dt.minute, dt.second,
              dt.weekday(), 0, 0)
        stamp = _time.mktime(tt)
        tt = _time.localtime(stamp)
        return tt.tm_isdst > 0

Local = LocalTimezone()


# A complete implementation of current DST rules for major US time zones.

def first_sunday_on_or_after(dt):
    days_to_go = 6 - dt.weekday()
    if days_to_go:
        dt += timedelta(days_to_go)
    return dt


# US DST Rules
#
# This is a simplified (i.e., wrong for a few cases) set of rules for US
# DST start and end times. For a complete and up-to-date set of DST rules
# and timezone definitions, visit the Olson Database (or try pytz):
# http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm
# http://sourceforge.net/projects/pytz/ (might not be up-to-date)
#
# In the US, since 2007, DST starts at 2am (standard time) on the second
# Sunday in March, which is the first Sunday on or after Mar 8.
DSTSTART_2007 = datetime(1, 3, 8, 2)
# and ends at 2am (DST time; 1am standard time) on the first Sunday of Nov.
DSTEND_2007 = datetime(1, 11, 1, 1)
# From 1987 to 2006, DST used to start at 2am (standard time) on the first
# Sunday in April and to end at 2am (DST time; 1am standard time) on the last
# Sunday of October, which is the first Sunday on or after Oct 25.
DSTSTART_1987_2006 = datetime(1, 4, 1, 2)
DSTEND_1987_2006 = datetime(1, 10, 25, 1)
# From 1967 to 1986, DST used to start at 2am (standard time) on the last
# Sunday in April (the one on or after April 24) and to end at 2am (DST time;
# 1am standard time) on the last Sunday of October, which is the first Sunday
# on or after Oct 25.
DSTSTART_1967_1986 = datetime(1, 4, 24, 2)
DSTEND_1967_1986 = DSTEND_1987_2006

class USTimeZone(tzinfo):

    def __init__(self, hours, reprname, stdname, dstname):
        self.stdoffset = timedelta(hours=hours)
        self.reprname = reprname
        self.stdname = stdname
        self.dstname = dstname

    def __repr__(self):
        return self.reprname

    def tzname(self, dt):
        if self.dst(dt):
            return self.dstname
        else:
            return self.stdname

    def utcoffset(self, dt):
        return self.stdoffset + self.dst(dt)

    def dst(self, dt):
        if dt is None or dt.tzinfo is None:
            # An exception may be sensible here, in one or both cases.
            # It depends on how you want to treat them.  The default
            # fromutc() implementation (called by the default astimezone()
            # implementation) passes a datetime with dt.tzinfo is self.
            return ZERO
        assert dt.tzinfo is self

        # Find start and end times for US DST. For years before 1967, return
        # ZERO for no DST.
        if 2006 < dt.year:
            dststart, dstend = DSTSTART_2007, DSTEND_2007
        elif 1986 < dt.year < 2007:
            dststart, dstend = DSTSTART_1987_2006, DSTEND_1987_2006
        elif 1966 < dt.year < 1987:
            dststart, dstend = DSTSTART_1967_1986, DSTEND_1967_1986
        else:
            return ZERO

        start = first_sunday_on_or_after(dststart.replace(year=dt.year))
        end = first_sunday_on_or_after(dstend.replace(year=dt.year))

        # Can't compare naive to aware objects, so strip the timezone from
        # dt first.
        if start <= dt.replace(tzinfo=None) < end:
            return HOUR
        else:
            return ZERO

Eastern  = USTimeZone(-5, "Eastern",  "EST", "EDT")
Central  = USTimeZone(-6, "Central",  "CST", "CDT")
Mountain = USTimeZone(-7, "Mountain", "MST", "MDT")
Pacific  = USTimeZone(-8, "Pacific",  "PST", "PDT")

Note that there are unavoidable subtleties twice per year in a tzinfo subclass accounting for both standard and daylight time, at the DST transition points. For concreteness, consider US Eastern (UTC -0500), where EDT begins the minute after 1:59 (EST) on the second Sunday in March, and ends the minute after 1:59 (EDT) on the first Sunday in November:

  UTC   3:MM  4:MM  5:MM  6:MM  7:MM  8:MM
  EST  22:MM 23:MM  0:MM  1:MM  2:MM  3:MM
  EDT  23:MM  0:MM  1:MM  2:MM  3:MM  4:MM

start  22:MM 23:MM  0:MM  1:MM  3:MM  4:MM

  end  23:MM  0:MM  1:MM  1:MM  2:MM  3:MM

When DST starts (the “start” line), the local wall clock leaps from 1:59 to 3:00. A wall time of the form 2:MM doesn’t really make sense on that day, so astimezone(Eastern) won’t deliver a result with hour == 2 on the day DST begins. In order for astimezone() to make this guarantee, the rzinfo.dst() method must consider times in the “missing hour” (2:MM for Eastern) to be in daylight time.

When DST ends (the “end” line), there’s a potentially worse problem: there’s an hour that can’t be spelled unambiguously in local wall time: the last hour of daylight time. In Eastern, that’s times of the form 5:MM UTC on the day daylight time ends. The local wall clock leaps from 1:59 (daylight time) back to 1:00 (standard time) again. Local times of the form 1:MM are ambiguous. astimezone() mimics the local clock’s behavior by mapping two adjacent UTC hours into the same local hour then. In the Eastern example, UTC times of the form 5:MM and 6:MM both map to 1:MM when converted to Eastern. In order for astimezone() to make this guarantee, the tzinfo.dst() method must consider times in the “repeated hour” to be in standard time. This is easily arranged, as in the example, by expressing DST switch times in the time zone’s standard local time.

Applications that can’t bear such ambiguities should avoid using hybrid tzinfo subclasses; there are no ambiguities when using UTC, or any other fixed-offset tzinfo subclass (such as a class representing only EST (fixed offset -5 hours), or only EDT (fixed offset -4 hours)).

See also

pytz

The standard library has no tzinfo instances, but there exists a third-party library which brings the IANA timezone database (also known as the Olson database) to Python: pytz.

pytz contains up-to-date information and its usage is recommended.

IANA timezone database

The Time Zone Database (often called tz or zoneinfo) contains code and data that represent the history of local time for many representative locations around the globe. It is updated periodically to reflect changes made by political bodies to time zone boundaries, UTC offsets, and daylight-saving rules.

8.1.7. strftime() and strptime() Behavior

date, datetime, and time objects all support a strftime(format) method, to create a string representing the time under the control of an explicit format string. Broadly speaking, d.strftime(fmt) acts like the time module’s time.strftime(fmt, d.timetuple()) although not all objects support a timetuple() method.

Conversely, the datetime.strptime() class method creates a datetime object from a string representing a date and time and a corresponding format string. datetime.strptime(date_string, format) is equivalent to datetime(*(time.strptime(date_string, format)[0:6])), except when the format includes sub-second components or timezone offset information, which are supported in datetime.strptime but are discarded by time.strptime.

For time objects, the format codes for year, month, and day should not be used, as time objects have no such values. If they’re used anyway, 1900 is substituted for the year, and 1 for the month and day.

For date objects, the format codes for hours, minutes, seconds, and microseconds should not be used, as date objects have no such values. If they’re used anyway, 0 is substituted for them.

The full set of format codes supported varies across platforms, because Python calls the platform C library’s strftime() function, and platform variations are common. To see the full set of format codes supported on your platform, consult the strftime(3) documentation.

The following is a list of all the format codes that the C standard (1989 version) requires, and these work on all platforms with a standard C implementation. Note that the 1999 version of the C standard added additional format codes.

The exact range of years for which strftime() works also varies across platforms. Regardless of platform, years before 1900 cannot be used.

Directive	Meaning	Example	Notes
%a	Weekday as locale’s abbreviated name.	Sun, Mon, …, Sat (en_US); So, Mo, …, Sa (de_DE)	(1)
%A	Weekday as locale’s full name.	Sunday, Monday, …, Saturday (en_US); Sonntag, Montag, …, Samstag (de_DE)	(1)
%w	Weekday as a decimal number, where 0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday.	0, 1, …, 6
%d	Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, …, 31
%b	Month as locale’s abbreviated name.	Jan, Feb, …, Dec (en_US); Jan, Feb, …, Dez (de_DE)	(1)
%B	Month as locale’s full name.	January, February, …, December (en_US); Januar, Februar, …, Dezember (de_DE)	(1)
%m	Month as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, …, 12
%y	Year without century as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 99
%Y	Year with century as a decimal number.	1970, 1988, 2001, 2013
%H	Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 23
%I	Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, …, 12
%p	Locale’s equivalent of either AM or PM.	AM, PM (en_US); am, pm (de_DE)	(1), (2)
%M	Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 59
%S	Second as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, …, 59	(3)
%f	Microsecond as a decimal number, zero-padded on the left.	000000, 000001, …, 999999	(4)
%z	UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM (empty string if the the object is naive).	(empty), +0000, -0400, +1030	(5)
%Z	Time zone name (empty string if the object is naive).	(empty), UTC, EST, CST
%j	Day of the year as a zero-padded decimal number.	001, 002, …, 366
%U	Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week) as a zero padded decimal number. All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0.	00, 01, …, 53	(6)
%W	Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week) as a decimal number. All days in a new year preceding the first Monday are considered to be in week 0.	00, 01, …, 53	(6)
%c	Locale’s appropriate date and time representation.	Tue Aug 16 21:30:00 1988 (en_US); Di 16 Aug 21:30:00 1988 (de_DE)	(1)
%x	Locale’s appropriate date representation.	08/16/88 (None); 08/16/1988 (en_US); 16.08.1988 (de_DE)	(1)
%X	Locale’s appropriate time representation.	21:30:00 (en_US); 21:30:00 (de_DE)	(1)
%%	A literal '%' character.	%

Notes:

1. Because the format depends on the current locale, care should be taken when making assumptions about the output value. Field orderings will vary (for example, “month/day/year” versus “day/month/year”), and the output may contain Unicode characters encoded using the locale’s default encoding (for example, if the current locale is ja_JP, the default encoding could be any one of eucJP, SJIS, or utf-8; use locale.getlocale() to determine the current locale’s encoding).

2. When used with the strptime() method, the %p directive only affects the output hour field if the %I directive is used to parse the hour.

3. Unlike the time module, the datetime module does not support leap seconds.

4. %f is an extension to the set of format characters in the C standard (but implemented separately in datetime objects, and therefore always available). When used with the strptime() method, the %f directive accepts from one to six digits and zero pads on the right.

   New in version 2.6.

5. For a naive object, the %z and %Z format codes are replaced by empty strings.

   For an aware object:

   %z

   utcoffset() is transformed into a 5-character string of the form +HHMM or -HHMM, where HH is a 2-digit string giving the number of UTC offset hours, and MM is a 2-digit string giving the number of UTC offset minutes. For example, if utcoffset() returns timedelta(hours=-3, minutes=-30), %z is replaced with the string '-0330'.

   %Z

   If tzname() returns None, %Z is replaced by an empty string. Otherwise %Z is replaced by the returned value, which must be a string.

6. When used with the strptime() method, %U and %W are only used in calculations when the day of the week and the year are specified.

Footnotes

[1]	If, that is, we ignore the effects of Relativity