📅 Date and Time Operations

Working with dates and times is essential in programming - from logging events to scheduling tasks, calculating durations, and handling time zones. Python's datetime module provides powerful tools for all your temporal needs.

Whether you're building a calendar app, processing timestamps, or handling international time zones, Python makes date and time operations intuitive and reliable.

from datetime import datetime, date, time

# Current date and time
now = datetime.now()
today = date.today()
current_time = time()

print(f"Current datetime: {now}")
print(f"Today's date: {today}")
print(f"Current time: {current_time}")

# Formatting dates
formatted = now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
print(f"Formatted: {formatted}")

🎯 Why Date and Time Matter

Date and time operations are crucial for:

Event Tracking 📊: Log when things happen
Scheduling ⏰: Plan future activities
Duration Calculations ⏱️: Measure time differences
Time Zones 🌍: Handle global applications
Data Analysis 📈: Process time-series data
User Interfaces 🖥️: Display human-readable dates

📚 Date and Time Topics

This section covers everything you need for date and time operations:

🕐 Get Current Date/Time Learn to retrieve current dates, times, and timestamps for your applications.
🎨 Format Dates Master date formatting for user displays and data output.
⏱️ Calculate Date Differences Compute time spans, durations, and intervals between dates.
📝 Parse Date Strings Convert text dates into Python datetime objects.
🌍 Handle Timezones Work with international time zones and UTC conversions.
🔢 Work with Timestamps Convert between datetime objects and Unix timestamps.

📊 Date/Time Reference Tables

Common Format Codes

Code	Meaning	Example
`%Y`	4-digit year	`2024`
`%y`	2-digit year	`24`
`%m`	Month (01-12)	`03`
`%B`	Full month name	`March`
`%b`	Abbreviated month	`Mar`
`%d`	Day of month	`15`
`%A`	Full weekday	`Monday`
`%a`	Abbreviated weekday	`Mon`
`%H`	Hour (00-23)	`14`
`%I`	Hour (01-12)	`02`
`%M`	Minute	`30`
`%S`	Second	`45`
`%p`	AM/PM	`PM`

DateTime Classes Comparison

Class	Purpose	Components	Example
`date`	Date only	year, month, day	`2024-03-15`
`time`	Time only	hour, minute, second	`14:30:45`
`datetime`	Date + time	All components	`2024-03-15 14:30:45`
`timedelta`	Duration	days, seconds, microseconds	`7 days, 2:30:00`

🌟 Quick Examples Preview

Here's what you'll learn to do:

from datetime import datetime, timedelta

# Get current date/time
now = datetime.now()
print(f"Now: {now.strftime('%B %d, %Y at %I:%M %p')}")

# Calculate future date
future = now + timedelta(days=30, hours=6)
print(f"In 30 days: {future.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')}")

# Parse date from string
date_str = "2024-12-25"
christmas = datetime.strptime(date_str, "%Y-%m-%d")
print(f"Christmas: {christmas.strftime('%A, %B %d')}")

# Calculate time difference
time_diff = christmas - now
print(f"Days until Christmas: {time_diff.days}")

🚀 Why Python's DateTime is Powerful

Python's date/time handling excels because:

✅ Intuitive API: Clear, readable method names
✅ Flexible Formatting: Customizable display formats
✅ Timezone Aware: Built-in timezone support
✅ Rich Calculations: Easy arithmetic with dates
✅ Standards Compliant: Follows ISO 8601 standards
✅ Performance: Efficient for large datasets

Time to make your Python applications time-aware! ⏰✨

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