Python Time Library

• We will consider various functions given by the python module library with examples.
• This python time module helps to work on time in python to get the current time.
• Before going with the example we have to import the library.

Import the time module:

• There is no need to install any module we have just importedthem using the import statement.

import time

Epoch:

• Where the time starts it is called epoch which is platform-dependent.
• The epoch is January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 for windows and most Unix systems.
• We can check the epoch using time.gmtime(0).

Import time
Print( time.gmtime(0) )

Output:

Time.strut_time (tm_year=1970, tm_mon=1,  tm_mday=1, tm.hour=0, tm_min=0,tn_sec=0,tm_wday=3, tm_yday=1, tm_isdst=0 )

Time.ctime

• It is a function that returns a string of 24 characters, and time.
• This function takes seconds as an argument and computes until the provided time.
• If the argument is not provided then it will consider the current time and compute till the current time.

Consider an example of getting time in the form of string:

import time
/ / getting current time by passing 
/ / seconds passes since epoch
sec = 1545925769.9618232
current = time.ctime ( sec )
Print(“current time:”,current

Output:

Current time: Tue Aug 22 12:33:54 2022

Program Delaying Execution

• The program execution can be delayed using time.sleep ( ) method.
• For a specified amount of time program execution can be delayed by using this function.

Consider an example to implement the above scenario:

import time
for i in range (5):
/ / using the sleep method 
	time.sleep(2)
	print(i)

Output:

0
1
2
3
4

Time.struct_time Class

• This function helps in accessing the local time which is non-epochal timestamps.
• It returns a tuple with a name, where both index and attribute name is used to access the value.
• The objects contain the attribute as follows:

Index	Attribute name	Values
0	tm_year	0000, ….., 9999
1	tm_mon	1,2,3,4,5,…. 11,12
2	tm_mday	1,2,3,…,30,31
3	tm_hour	0,1,2,3,4,….,21,22,23
4	tm_min	0, 1, 2, 3, …, 57, 58, 59
5	tm_sec	0, 1, 2, 3, …., 60, 61
6	tm_wday	0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ;6 is Sunday
7	tm_yday	1, 2, 3, 4, …, 365, 366
8	tm_isdst	0, 1 or -1

Python time.localtime ( )

• This function returns struct time in local time, it takes a number of seconds from epoch as an argument.
• If the argument is not given then time.time( ) is used.
• Let us assume a program for the above scenario:

/ /import the time module
import time
/ / convert the time 
/ /from the epoch  
/ / time.strurct_time object in local time
obj = time.localtime(1545925769)
print(“Result:”,obj)
print(“/n Year:”,obj.tm_year)
print(“Hour:”obj.tm_hour)

Output:

Result: time.struct_time( tm_year=2022, tm_mo = 8, tm_mday = 3, tm_hour = 16, tm_min = 15,tm_sec = 8,tm_wday = 1,tm_yday = 215, tm_isdst = 0)
Year: 2022
Hour: 15

Python time.gmtime( )

• This function returns the struct_time in UTC.
• It takes a number of seconds from the epoch as an argument.
• This function is used to convert seconds from epoch to struct time.
• If the argument is not given then time.time( ) is used.
• Let us consider an example program:

/ /importing the time module
import time
/ / convert the time in seconds
/ /since the epoch to a 
/ / time.struct_time object in local time
obj = time.gmtime(1545925769)
print(“Result:”,obj)
print(“/n Year:”,obj.tm_year)
print(“Hour:”obj.tm_hour)

Output:

Result: time.struct_time( tm_year=2022, tm_mo = 8, tm_mday = 3, tm_hour = 16, tm_min = 15,tm_sec = 8,tm_wday = 1,tm_yday = 215, tm_isdst = 0)
Year: 2022
Hour: 15

Python time.strptime ( )

• This method converts the time which is in form of a string to struct time.
• Let us consider a program for the above case:

/ /importing the time module
import time
/ / declare a variable with current date
time_string = “22 Aug 2022”
obj = time.strptime(time_string, “%d %B,%Y”)
/ / printing the object
print(obj)

Output:

time.struct_time( tm_year=2022, tm_mo = 8, tm_mday = 22, tm_hour = 0, tm_min = 0,tm_sec = 0,tm_wday = 1,tm_yday = 172, tm_isdst = -1)

Python time.mktime ( )

• This function returns the seconds from the beginning of the epoch from local time.
• The struct_time is taken as argument in the mktime( ) function.
• The mktime( ) function is a inverse of localtime( ) function.
• Let us consider a program for the above function:

/ / import the python time module
import time
/ / declaring a variable 
time = 1627988053
/ / returning the struct_time
obj1 = time.localtime( time ) 
print(“obj1:”, obj1 )
 / / returning the time in seconds from struct_time
obj = time.mktime( time )
print(“obj:”, obj )

Output:

Obj1 :time.struct_time( tm_year=2022, tm_mo = 8, tm_mday = 22, tm_hour = 0, tm_min = 0,tm_sec = 0,tm_wday = 1,tm_yday = 172, tm_isdst = -1)
Obj :1627988053

Python time.asctime( )

• This function returns a string representing the time given.
• The function asctime( ), takes struct_time as an argument.
• It converts a struct_time in to string object which represents the time.
• The return string is represented as:
  Day Mon Date Hour: Min: Sec Year

• Let us consider an example program for the above function.

/ / import the python time module
import time
/ / declaring a variable 
sec = 1627988053
/ / convert the struct time 
/ / into string in the form “Day Mon Date Hour: Min: Sec Year”
/ / using the asc.time( ) function 
obj = time.gmtime( sec ) 
time_str = time.asctime( obj )
print( time_str)
/ / convert the struct time 
/ / into string in the form “Day Mon Date Hour: Min: Sec Year”
/ / using the asc.time( ) function 
Obj1 = time.localtime( sec )
time_str = time.asctime( obj )
print(time_str )

Output:

Mon Aug 22 10:23:09 2022
Mon Aug 22 10:23:09 2022

Python time.strftime( )

• This function returns a string representing the time given.
• The function strftime( ), takes struct_time as an argument.
• The string which the function returns is based on the format codes.
• Let us consider a program for the above function:

/ / import the python time module
import time
/ / declaring a variable
obj = time.local time( )
/ / converting the time in a string using the strf.time ( ) function
stringobj = time.strftime ( “%m %d %Y, %H : %M : %S “, obj )
/ / displaying the time
print( stringobj )

Output:

08/22/2022, 09: 23: 34