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Python date strftime() Method with Example

Python date.strftime() Method: In this tutorial, we will learn about the strftime() method of date class in Python with its usage, syntax, and examples. By Hritika Rajput Last updated : April 22, 2023

Python date.strftime() Method

The date.strftime() method takes an instance of the class and returns a string representing the date, which is controlled by an explicit format string. Since this class has attributes related to dates only, format codes referring to hours, minutes, or seconds have 0 values.

Module

The following module is required to use strftime() method:

import datetime

Class

The following class is required to use strftime() method:

from datetime import date

Syntax

The following is the syntax of strftime() method:

strftime(format)

Parameter(s)

The following are the parameter(s):

• format - it is the string format code based on which string representation and formatting occurs. For example, %Y, %m, %d etc. are format codes. This method takes one or more format codes as an argument and returns a formatted string based on that.

Format Codes

Given below is a list of all the format codes available:

Directive	Meaning	Example
%a	Abbreviated weekday name.	Sun, Mon, ...
%A	Full weekday name.	Sunday, Monday, ...
%w	Weekday as a decimal number.	0, 1, ..., 6
%d	Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal.	01, 02, ..., 31
%-d	Day of the month as a decimal number.	1, 2, ..., 30
%b	Abbreviated month name.	Jan, Feb, ..., Dec
%B	Full month name.	January, February, ...
%m	Month as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, ..., 12
%-m	Month as a decimal number.	1, 2, ..., 12
%y	Year without century as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, ..., 99
%-y	Year without century as a decimal number.	0,1, 2, … , 99
%Y	Year with century as a decimal number.	2020, 2019 etc
%H	Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, ..., 23
%-H	Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number.	0, 1, 2, ..., 23
%I	Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.	01, 02, ..., 12
%-I	Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number.	1,2,.., 12
%p	Local AM or PM.	AM, PM
%M	Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, ..., 59
%-M	Minute as a decimal number.	0, 1, ..., 59
%S	Second as a zero-padded decimal number.	00, 01, ..., 59
%-S	Second as a decimal number.	0, 1, ..., 59
%f	Microsecond as a decimal number,zero-padded on the left.	000000 - 999999
%z	UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM.
%Z	Time zone name.
%j	Day of the year as a zero-padded decimal number.	001, 002, ..., 366
%-j	Day of the year as a decimal number.	1, 2, ..., 366
%c	Appropriate local date and time representation	Wed Oct 27 01:04:15 2020
%x	Appropriate local date representation.	09/30/13
%X	Appropriate local time representation.	09:07:06
%U	Week number of the year, with Sunday as the first day of the week	00, 01, ..., 53
%W	Week number of the year, with Monday as the first day of the week	00, 01, ..., 53

Please note all the codes which have time and timezone information, will have 0 values as date class only contains date attributes.

Return Value

The return type of this method is a string converted according to the format code.

Example of date strftime() Method in Python

## Python program explaining the 
## use of strftime() method in date class

from datetime import date

## Creating an instance
x = date.today()
c = x.strftime("%c")
print("Date representation using strftime:", c)
print()

##You can extract information using these methods
print("Abbreviated weekday name:", x.strftime("%a"))
print("Full weekday name:", x.strftime("%A"))
print("Weekday as a decimal number:", x.strftime("%w"))
print("Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal:", x.strftime("%d"))
print("Full month name:", x.strftime("%B"))
print("Month as a decimal number:", x.strftime("%-m"))
print("Year with century as a decimal number:", x.strftime("%Y"))
print("What day of the year is it?", x.strftime("%-j"))
print("What is the week number of this day?", x.strftime("%U"))
##or x.strftime("%W")
print()

## Different ways of representing the Date 
## as a date string
print("Output 1:", x.strftime("%d %m %Y"))
print("Output 2:", x.strftime("%-d %-m %y, %H %M %S"))
## time values will be 0
print("Output 3:", x.strftime("%a %d %B %Y"))
print("Output 4:", x.strftime("%A, %Y %m %d, %H:%M:%S"))
print("Output 5:", x.strftime("%x"))
## You can create any combination of the date 
## representation you want 

Output

Date representation using strftime: Thu Apr 30 00:00:00 2020

Abbreviated weekday name: Thu
Full weekday name: Thursday
Weekday as a decimal number: 4
Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal: 30
Full month name: April
Month as a decimal number: 4
Year with century as a decimal number: 2020
What day of the year is it? 121
What is the week number of this day? 17

Output 1: 30 04 2020
Output 2: 30 4 20, 00 00 00
Output 3: Thu 30 April 2020
Output 4: Thursday, 2020 04 30, 00:00:00
Output 5: 04/30/20

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