20.8. The time module: dates and times

20.8. The `time` module: dates and times

Epoch time is the time in seconds since some arbitrary starting point. For example, Unix measures time in seconds since January 1, 1970.
UTC is Coordinated Universal Time, the time on the zero meridian (which goes through London).
DST refers to Daylight Savings Time.

A time tuple is a 9-tuple T with these elements, all integers:

`T[0]`	Four-digit year.	`T[5]`	Second, in [0,59].
`T[1]`	Month, 1 for January, 12 for December.	`T[6]`	Day of week, 0 for Monday, 6 for Sunday.
`T[2]`	Day of month, in [1,31].	`T[7]`	Ordinal day of the year, in [1,366].
`T[3]`	Hour, in [0,23].	`T[8]`	DST flag: `1` if the time is DST, `0` if it is not DST, and `-1` if unknown.
`T[4]`	Minute, in [0,59].

Contents of the time module:

altzone

The local DST offset, in seconds west of UTC (negative for east of UTC).

asctime([T])

For a time-tuple T, returns a string of exactly 24 characters with this format:

"Thu Jun 12 15:25:31 1997"

The default time is now.

clock()

The accumulated CPU time of the current process in seconds, as a float.

ctime([E])

Converts an epoch time E to a string with the same format as asctime(). The default time is now.

daylight

Nonzero if there is a DST value defined locally.

gmtime([E])

Returns the time-tuple corresponding to UTC at epoch time E; the DST flag will be zero. The default time is now.

localtime([E])

Returns the time-tuple corresponding to local time at epoch time E. The default time is now.

mktime(T)

Converts a time-tuple T to epoch time as a float, where T is the local time.

sleep(s)

Suspend execution of the current process for s seconds, where s can be a float or integer.

strftime(f[,t])

Time formatting function; formats a time-tuple t according to format string f. The default time t is now. As with the string format operator, format codes start with %, and other text appears unchanged in the result. See the table of codes below.

time()

The current epoch time, as a float.

timezone

The local non-DST time zone as an offset in seconds west of UTC (negative for east of UTC). This value applies when daylight savings time is not in effect.

tzname

A 2-tuple (s, d) where s is the name of the non-DST time zone locally and d is the name of the local DST time zone. For example, in Socorro, NM, you get ('MST', 'MDT').

Format codes for the strftime function include:

`%a`	Abbreviated weekday name, e.g., `"Tue"`.
`%A`	Full weekday name, e.g., `"Tuesday"`.
`%b`	Abbreviated month name, e.g., `"Jul"`.
`%B`	Full month name, e.g., `"July"`.
`%d`	Day of the month, two digits with left zero fill; e.g. `"03"`.
`%H`	Hour on the 24-hour clock, two digits with zero fill.
`%I`	Hour on the 12-hour clock, two digits with zero fill.
`%j`	Day of the year as a decimal number, three digits with zero fill, e.g. "366".
`%m`	Decimal month, two digits with zero fill.
`%M`	Minute, two digits with zero fill.
`%p`	Either `"AM"` or `"PM"`. Midnight is considered AM and noon PM.
`%S`	Second, two digits with zero fill.
`%w`	Numeric weekday: 0 for Sunday, 6 for Saturday.
`%y`	Two-digit year. Not recommended!
`%Y`	Four-digit year.
`%Z`	If there is a time zone, a string representing that zone; e.g., `"PST"`.
`%%`	Outputs the character `%`.

Python 2.2 quick reference

20.8. The time module: dates and times

20.8. The `time` module: dates and times