How to Format date using strftime() in Python ?
Last Updated :
23 Jul, 2025
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In this article, we will see how to format date using strftime() in Python. localtime() and gmtime() returns a tuple representing a time and this tuple is converted into a string as specified by the format argument using python time method strftime().
Syntax:
time.strftime(format[, sec])
sec: This is the time in number of seconds to be formatted.
format: This is the directive or format code which would be used to format.
| Directive or format code | Returned Valued | Example |
|---|---|---|
| %Y | Full year with century | 2021,2022 |
| %y | Year without century with zero padded value | 00,01,....21,22...,99 |
| %-y | Year without century | 0,1...,99 |
| %m | Month with zero padded value | 01-12 |
| %-m | Month without zero padded value | 1-12 |
| %B | Full month name | January, February,..., December |
| %b | Short form of month | Jan, Feb,...,Dec |
| %A | Full weekday name | Sunday, Monday,.. |
| %a | Short form of weekday name | Sun, Mon,.. |
| %w | Weekday as decimal value | 0-6 |
| %d | Days with zero padded value | 01-31 |
| %-d | Days with decimal value | 1-31 |
| %H | Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded value. | 00-23 |
| %-H | Hour (24-hour clock) without zero-padded value. | 0,1,...,23 |
| %I | Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded value. | 01-12 |
| %-I | Hour (12-hour clock) without zero-padded value. | 1-12 |
| %M | Mins with zero-padded | 00-59 |
| %-M | Mins without zero padded value | 0-59 |
| %S | Secs with zero padded value | 00-59 |
| %-S | Secs without zero padded value | 0-59 |
| %f | Micro Secs with zero-padded value | 000000 - 999999 |
| %p | Locale’s AM or PM. | AM/PM |
| %j | Day of the year with zero padded value | 001-366 |
| %-j | Day of the year without zero padded value | 1-366 |
| %z | UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM. | |
| %Z | Time zone name. | |
| %C | Locale’s appropriate date and time | Fri Apr 02 02:09:07 2020 |
| %x | Locale’s appropriate date | 02/04/22 |
| %X | Locale’s appropriate time | 02:04:22 |
| %W | Week number of the year. Monday as first day of week | 00-53 |
| %U | Week number of the year. Sunday as first day of week | 00-53 |
Below are some examples for better understanding.
Example 1:
from datetime import datetime
# current time and date
# datetime object
time = datetime.now()
print("Without formatting:", time)
# formatting date using strftime
print("After formatting:", time.strftime("%b %d, %Y"))
Output
Without formatting: 2022-11-29 12:59:08.088819 After formatting: Nov 29, 2022
Output:
Example 2:
from datetime import datetime
# current time and date
# datetime object
time = datetime.now()
print("Without formatting:", time)
# formatting date using strftime
print("Year", time.strftime("%Y"))
print("Month name", time.strftime("%B"))
print("Day", time.strftime("%d"))
Output:
Example 3:
from datetime import datetime
# current time and date
# datetime object
time = datetime.now()
# formatting date using strftime
# format = MM/DD/YY
print(time.strftime("%m/%d/%y"))
# format = Month D, Yr
print(time.strftime("%B %d, %Y"))
# time formatting
# HH:MM:SS
print(time.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))
Output:
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