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How to work with dates and times

Updated September 2026 · Beginner-friendly guide

Get current date and time

date.today() returns the local calendar date. For globally comparable timestamps, use an aware UTC datetime.

from datetime import date, datetime, timezone

print(date.today())
now_utc = datetime.now(timezone.utc)
print(now_utc)

Create dates and calculate

timedelta represents a duration. Adding it to a date or datetime creates a new value because these objects are immutable.

from datetime import date, timedelta

deadline = date(2026, 10, 1)
reminder = deadline - timedelta(days=7)
days_left = deadline - date(2026, 9, 8)
print(reminder)
print(days_left.days)

Format for display

strftime() converts a date or datetime to formatted text. ISO format is a strong default for machine-readable data.

from datetime import datetime

moment = datetime(2026, 9, 8, 14, 30)
print(moment.strftime("%B %d, %Y at %H:%M"))
print(moment.isoformat())

Parse text

strptime() parses text according to an exact format and raises ValueError when the text does not match.

from datetime import datetime

text = "2026-09-08"
try:
    parsed = datetime.strptime(text, "%Y-%m-%d").date()
    print(parsed)
except ValueError:
    print("Use YYYY-MM-DD")

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