Python datetime module handles the extraction and formatting of date and time variables. datetime module includes five classes: date, time, datetime, timedelta and tzinfo. Objects of these objects are immutable.

• date Objects:

>>> from datetime import date
>>> d = date.today()
>>> d

dateimt.date(2012, 12, 11)

>>> d2 = date(2000, 3, 14)
>>> d2.year

2000

>>> d2.month

3

>>> d2.day

14

>>> if (d > d2):
... print(abs(d-d2))
...

4875 days, 0:00:00

>>> from datetime import time
>>> t = time(3, 12, 2)
>>> t

datetime.time(3,12,2)

>>> t.strftime("%H:%M:%S")

'03:12:02'

>>> t.strftime("%H hour %M minute %s seconds")

'03 hour 12 minute 02 seconds'

>>> from datetime import datetime, date, time
>>> d = date(2000, 3, 14)
>>> t = time(3, 12, 2)
>>> dt = datetime.combine(d,t)
>>> dt

datetime.datetime(2000, 3, 14, 3, 12, 2)

>>> datetime.now()

datetime.datetime(2012, 12, 11, 6, 7, 16, 542132)

>>> datetime.utcnow()

datetime.datetime(2012, 12, 11, 10, 10, 16, 274808)

>>> dt2 = datetime.strptime("12/11/2012 07:10", "%d/%m/%Y %H:%M")
>>> dt2.year

2012

>>> dt2.month

12

>>> dt2.day

11

>>> dt2.hour

7

>>> dt2.minute

10

>>> dt2.second

0

>>> dt2.weekday()

0 #0:Monday, 1:Tuesday, 2:Wednesday ...

>>> from datetime import timedelta
>>> y = timedelta(days=5, hours=2, minutes=10, seconds=21)
>>> y2 = timedelta(days=21, hours=21, minutes=15, seconds=3)
>>> y3 = y2 - y
>>> y3

datetime.timedelta(16, 68682)

>>> y3.days

16

>>> y3.seconds

68682

>>> from datetime import tzinfo, timedelta, date, time, datetime
>>> class GMT_4(tzinfo):
... def utcoffset(self, dt):
... return timedelta(hours=-4)
... def tzname(self, dt):
... return "America/New_York"
...
>>> t = time(14,4,21,tzinfo=GMT_4())

'14:04:21-04:00'