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Date Time Module
The datetime module lets you work with dates and times in Python - creating them, formatting them for display, and calculating the difference between two points in time.
Getting the Current Date and Time
import datetime
today = datetime.date.today()
print(today) # e.g. 2026-07-15
now = datetime.datetime.now()
print(now) # e.g. 2026-07-15 14:32:10.123456Formatting Dates with strftime
The strftime() method converts a datetime object into a custom, human-readable string format.
now = datetime.datetime.now()
print(now.strftime("%d-%m-%Y")) # 15-07-2026
print(now.strftime("%A, %B %d, %Y")) # Wednesday, July 15, 2026Calculating Time Differences
Subtracting two datetime objects produces a timedelta object, representing the duration between them.
from datetime import date
start = date(2026, 1, 1)
end = date(2026, 7, 15)
difference = end - start
print(difference.days) # number of days between the two datesWhen working with data that includes timestamps, always check whether your dataset uses a consistent date format before parsing - real-world date data is notoriously inconsistent and often needs cleaning before it can be converted into proper datetime objects.
Coming Up Next
Next, you'll explore the random module - used for generating random numbers and making random selections in Python.