pythondatetimepython-datetime

Getting today's date in YYYY-MM-DD in Python?

Is there a nicer way than the following to return today's date in the YYYY-MM-DD format?

str(datetime.datetime.today()).split()[0]
Solution

  • Use strftime:

    >>> from datetime import datetime
>>> datetime.today().strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
'2021-01-26'

    To also include a zero-padded Hour:Minute:Second at the end:

    >>> datetime.today().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
'2021-01-26 16:50:03'

    To get the UTC date and time:

    >>> datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
'2021-01-27 00:50:03'