python datetime today vs now

What is the difference between python functions `datetime.now()` and `datetime.today()`?

stackoverflow.com › questions › 32517248 › what-is-the-difference-between-python-functions-datetime-now-and-datetime-t

datetime.datetime.now() takes tzinfo as keyword argument but datetime.today() does not take any keyword arguments.

By default, now() executes with datetime.datetime.now(tz=None)

As quoted in the docs: https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime.now

datetime.now() return the current local date and time. If optional argument tz is None or not specified, this is like today(), but, if possible, supplies more precision than can be gotten from going through a time.time() timestamp (for example, this may be possible on platforms supplying the C gettimeofday() function).

Answer from Tevin Joseph K O on Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow

stackoverflow.com › questions › 32517248 › what-is-the-difference-between-python-functions-datetime-now-and-datetime-t

What is the difference between python functions `datetime.now()` and `datetime.today()`? - Stack Overflow

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1 of 5

datetime.datetime.now() takes tzinfo as keyword argument but datetime.today() does not take any keyword arguments.

By default, now() executes with datetime.datetime.now(tz=None)

As quoted in the docs: https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime.now

datetime.now() return the current local date and time. If optional argument tz is None or not specified, this is like today(), but, if possible, supplies more precision than can be gotten from going through a time.time() timestamp (for example, this may be possible on platforms supplying the C gettimeofday() function).

2 of 5

See the docs for datetime.today and datetime.now, specifically this part from the latter link:

If optional argument tz is None or not specified, this is like today(), but, if possible, supplies more precision than can be gotten from going through a time.time() timestamp (for example, this may be possible on platforms supplying the C gettimeofday() function).

So in your example, both are the same, although specific platforms may provide more precision with datetime.now.

Datadog

docs.datadoghq.com › security › code_security › static_analysis › static_analysis_rules › python-best-practices › no-datetime-today

do not use datetime.today()

Using today() makes you think it only returns the year/month/day but it returns a full timestamp. For this reason, prefer using now(). from datetime import datetime print("foo") bla = datetime.today() # use datetime.now() instead

Discussions

TIL that datetime.utcnow() is faster than datetime.now()

To anyone out there reading this: if datetime.now() is your performance bottleneck, you can probably stop optimizing. More on reddit.com

r/Python

709

October 23, 2023

Difference between datetime.now and datetime.now() in the code ?

Get access to thousands of hours ... today. Start your free trial ... Sorry for asking this so late, but why are we using datetime.now instead of datetime.now() in the Entry class. If only the name of the method(datetime.now) is used, instead of calling it (datetime.now()), How is this working?? ... In Python, functions ... More on teamtreehouse.com

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December 16, 2015

Not understanding difference between system.date.now() and datetime.datetime.now()

I'm trying to modify an existing script that has the following date manipulations: now = system.date.now() end = system.date.midnight(system.date.addDays(now, -system.date.getDayOfMonth(now)+1)) # 1st of this month start = system.date.addMonths(end, -1) # 1 month prior to end And I need to ... More on forum.inductiveautomation.com

forum.inductiveautomation.com

February 21, 2023

What is the difference between datetime.now() and datetime.today() in Python - Stack Overflow

datetime.today gives you non timezone aware time. datetime.now acccepts timezone info as argument and can provide tz spcific time and date ... What platform are you talking about? The example code could be from at least a dozen languages. ... I was talking about Python. More on stackoverflow.com

stackoverflow.com

Python documentation

docs.python.org › 3 › library › datetime.html

datetime — Basic date and time types

As such, the recommended way to create an object representing the current time in UTC is by calling datetime.now(timezone.utc).

reddit.com › r/python › til that datetime.utcnow() is faster than datetime.now()

r/Python on Reddit: TIL that datetime.utcnow() is faster than datetime.now()

October 23, 2023 - Took me a few seconds to notice this was r/Python. The same is true in .NET, where DateTime.UtcNow is substantially faster than DateTime.Now.

Team Treehouse

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Difference between datetime.now and datetime.now() in the code ? (Example) | Treehouse Community

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1 of 2

In Python, functions are first class objects. That is, they can be treated like a ordinary object and be assigned to a variable. datetime.now refers to the function as an object and datetime.now() executes the function and returns the current time. From the peewee docs (http://docs.peewee-orm.com/en/latest/peewee/models.html#default-field-values): A common scenario is using the current date and time. Peewee allows you to specify a function in these cases, whose return value will be used when the object is created. Note we only provide the function, we do not actually call it: python class Message(Model): context = TextField() timestamp = DateTimeField(default=datetime.datetime.now)

2 of 2

Ok I got it. Thanks. :)

Inductive Automation

forum.inductiveautomation.com › general discussion

Not understanding difference between system.date.now() and datetime.datetime.now() - General Discussion - Inductive Automation Forum

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My recommendation would be to stick with using system.date.* unless there is some more advanced functionality that you need from java.util.Date or datetime now = system.date.now() end = system.date.midnight(system.date.addDays(now, -system.date.getDayOfMonth(now)+1)) # 1st of this month start = sys…

TutorialsPoint

tutorialspoint.com › what-is-the-difference-between-python-functions-datetime-now-and-datetime-today

What is the difference between Python functions datetime.now() and datetime.today()?

June 13, 2020 - datetime.now() returns the current local date and time. If optional argument tz is None or not specified, this is like today(), but, if possible, supplies more precision than can be gotten from going through a time.time() timestamp (for example, this may be possible on platforms supplying the ...

Python

bugs.python.org › issue41904

Issue 41904: datetime.datetime.today makes no sense and should be removed - Python tracker

October 1, 2020 - This issue tracker has been migrated to GitHub, and is currently read-only. For more information, see the GitHub FAQs in the Python's Developer Guide. Created on 2020-10-01 15:54 by yurzo, last changed 2022-04-11 14:59 by admin. This issue is now closed.

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stackoverflow.com › questions › 48680916 › what-is-the-difference-between-datetime-now-and-datetime-today-in-python

What is the difference between datetime.now() and datetime.today() in Python - Stack Overflow

datetime.today gives you non timezone aware time. datetime.now acccepts timezone info as argument and can provide tz spcific time and date ... What platform are you talking about?

reddit.com › r/learnpython › datetime.date.today and timezones

r/learnpython on Reddit: datetime.date.today and timezones

October 19, 2021 -

I'm a student working on a Python project. In my code, I have a global variable:

today = date.today()

I am concerned with the date only, meaning I don't use time in my program. The only reason I would be concerned about time is for when it causes one today's date to switch to tomorrow's date.

Throughout my code, I reference this variable a bunch of times. For example:

today.day to get the current day of the month
today.strftime("%B") to get the current month name
today.year to get the current year, etc.

Recently, I have realized I need to deal with timezones. Upon looking up how to do this, I found some guides on how to use pytz. It seems fairly straightforward, however it all has to do with datetime.now() instead of date.today(), which I have been using throughout my code. I was hoping I could just swap in datetime.now(), but it messes things up because it has the date and the time, instead of just the date.

What is my best course of action? Is there a way for me to get date.today() to work with timezones/pytz, or do I need to re-work my code so that it can work with datetime.now()?

Hopefully this all makes sense. I just learned Python a few months ago. Thanks.

Top answer

1 of 1

You can just call: datetime.datetime.now().date() And it'll produce the same output as: datetime.date.today()

Python

bugs.python.org › issue44307

Issue 44307: date.today() is half as fast as datetime.now().date() - Python tracker

This issue tracker has been migrated to GitHub, and is currently read-only. For more information, see the GitHub FAQs in the Python's Developer Guide · This issue has been migrated to GitHub: https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/88473

W3Schools

w3schools.com › python › python_datetime.asp

Python Datetime

A date in Python is not a data type of its own, but we can import a module named datetime to work with dates as date objects. Import the datetime module and display the current date: import datetime x = datetime.datetime.now() print(x) Try it Yourself » · When we execute the code from the example above the result will be: The date contains year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and microsecond.

Educative

educative.io › answers › what-is-the-datetime-datetoday-function-in-python

What is the datetime date.today() function in Python?

In Python, there are multiple ways to extract the current date. In this shot, we will use the today() method from the date class of the datetime module. The datetime.now() method can extract the current date and time.

Built In

builtin.com › articles › date-python

Python Date vs. Datetime Objects Explained | Built In

In Python, a date object is used to present a calendar date, while a datetime object represents the date down to the microsecond. Here’s how to code date in Python: from datetime import datetime dt = datetime.now() # Gets the current date ...

freeCodeCamp

freecodecamp.org › news › python-datetime-now-how-to-get-todays-date-and-time

Python Datetime.now() – How to Get Today's Date and Time

September 20, 2022 - You can use the datetime module in Python to retrieve data about date and time. In this article, you'll learn how to use the datetime object from the datetime module to get the current date and time properties. You'll also learn how to get the date and time of different locations around the world using the datetime.now() function and the pytz module.

Note.nkmk.me

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Get the Current Date and Time in Python: datetime.now, date.today | note.nkmk.me

April 22, 2025 - Convert between Unix time (Epoch time) and datetime in Python · Use datetime.now() from the datetime module to get a datetime object representing the current date and time.

Programiz

programiz.com › python-programming › datetime › current-datetime

How to get current date and time in Python? (With Examples)

from datetime import date today = date.today() # dd/mm/YY d1 = today.strftime("%d/%m/%Y") print("d1 =", d1) # Textual month, day and year d2 = today.strftime("%B %d, %Y") print("d2 =", d2) # mm/dd/y d3 = today.strftime("%m/%d/%y") print("d3 =", d3) # Month abbreviation, day and year d4 = today.strftime("%b-%d-%Y") print("d4 =", d4) ... If we need to get the current date and time, you can use the datetime class of the datetime module. from datetime import datetime # datetime object containing current date and time now = datetime.now() print("now =", now) # dd/mm/YY H:M:S dt_string = now.strftime("%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S") print("date and time =", dt_string)

Python

bugs.python.org › issue44831

Issue 44831: Inconsistency between datetime.now() and datetime.fromtimestamp(time.time(), None) - Python tracker