In this article, we will know the approaches to get the current time in Python. There are multiple ways to get it. The most preferably date-time module is used in Python to create the object containing date and time. DateTime object in Python is used to manage operations involving time-based data.

• datetime.now(): This method returns a DateTime object representing the exact moment the code is executed.
• strftime() Method: This method is used to format the datetime object into a string in a specific format.

from datetime import datetime

# now() method is used to get object
# containing current date & time.
now = datetime.now()

# strftime() method used to create a string
# representing the current time.
currentTime = now.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
print("Current Time =", currentTime)

Current Time = 06:20:18

Using time module

The time module helps to get time-related functions and it is well-suited for time manipulation.

• time.localtime(): Converts the current time (in seconds) to a struct_time object in the local timezone.
• time.strftime(format, t): Formats the time (given as a struct_time) into a string according to the specified format.

import time


# localtime() method used to get the object containing the local time.
t = time.localtime()

# strftime() method used to create a string representing the current time.
currentTime = t.strftime("%H:%M:%S", t)
print(currentTime)

06:22:49

Get Time in a Specific Time Zone

To get a current time in a specific time zone, we can use time module combined with datetime.now and strftime() methods.

• pytz.timezone: This defines the India Standard Time (IST) time zone. This helps to get the correct time in the India Standard Time zone.

from datetime import datetime
import pytz

# Define the timezone for India
tz_india = pytz.timezone('Asia/Kolkata')

# Get the current time in India time zone
datetime_india = datetime.now(tz_india)
print("India Time:", datetime_india.strftime("%H:%M:%S"))

India Time: 11:54:39