How to Format Dates for Printing in Python?

How to Print a Date in a Regular Format

Problem:

When appending a date to a list, the printed output appears as "[datetime.date(YYYY, MM, DD)]" instead of a simple "YYYY-MM-DD" format.

Why:

Dates in Python are objects. When printing, they have two representations:

• Regular representation (using str()): A human-readable format (e.g., "2008-11-22").
• Alternative representation (using repr()): An object representation (e.g., "datetime.date(2008, 11, 22)").

How to Solve:

To get a simple date string, cast the date object to a string using str(). This ensures that the regular representation is used when printing. Here's an example:

import datetime
today = datetime.date.today()
print(str(today))  # Prints "2008-11-22"

Alternatively, you can use the strftime() method to create a custom date format:

print(today.strftime('%Y-%m-%d'))  # Prints "2008-11-22"

Advanced Formatting:

strftime() supports various format specifiers to customize the date format, such as:

• %d: Day of the month (e.g., 22)
• %m: Month number (e.g., 11)
• %b: Abbreviated month name (e.g., Nov)
• %Y: Year (e.g., 2008)

You can also use string interpolation to directly format dates within strings:

print(f"Today is {today:%Y-%m-%d}")

The above is the detailed content of How to Format Dates for Printing in Python?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!