Python time Module

The time module in Python provides functions for handling time-related tasks.

The time-related tasks includes,

• reading the current time
• formatting time
• sleeping for a specified number of seconds and so on.

Python time.time() Function

In Python, the time() function returns the number of seconds passed since epoch (the point where time begins).

For the Unix system, January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 at UTC is epoch.

Let's see an example,

# import the time module
import time

# get the current time in seconds since the epoch
seconds = time.time()

print("Seconds since epoch =", seconds)	

# Output: Seconds since epoch = 1672214933.6804628

In the above example, we have used the time.time() function to get the current time in seconds since the epoch, and then printed the result.

Python time.ctime() Function

The time.ctime() function in Python takes seconds passed since epoch as an argument and returns a string representing local time.

import time

# seconds passed since epoch
seconds = 1672215379.5045543

# convert the time in seconds since the epoch to a readable format
local_time = time.ctime(seconds)

print("Local time:", local_time)

Output

Local time: Wed Dec 28 08:16:19 2022

Here, we have used the time.ctime() function to convert the time in seconds since the epoch to a readable format, and then printed the result.

Python time.sleep() Function

The sleep() function suspends (delays) execution of the current thread for the given number of seconds.

import time

print("Printed immediately.")
time.sleep(2.4)
print("Printed after 2.4 seconds.")

Output

Printed immediately.
Printed after 2.4 seconds.

Here's how this program works:

• "Printed immediately" is printed
• time.sleep(2.4) suspends execution for 2.4 seconds.
• "Printed after 2.4 seconds" is printed.

To learn more about sleep(), please visit Python sleep().

Python time.localtime() Function

The localtime() function takes the number of seconds passed since epoch as an argument and returns struct_time (a tuple containing 9 elements corresponding to struct_time) in local time.

import time

result = time.localtime(1672214933)
print("result:", result)
print("\nyear:", result.tm_year)
print("tm_hour:", result.tm_hour)

Output

result: time.struct_time(tm_year=2022, tm_mon=12, tm_mday=28, tm_hour=8, tm_min=8, tm_sec=53, tm_wday=2, tm_yday=362, tm_isdst=0)

year: 2022
tm_hour: 8

Here, if no argument or None is passed to localtime(), the value returned by time() is used.

Python time.gmtime() Function

The gmtime() function takes the number of seconds passed since epoch as an argument and returns struct_time in UTC.

import time

result = time.gmtime(1672214933)
print("result:", result)
print("\nyear:", result.tm_year)
print("tm_hour:", result.tm_hour)

Output

result: time.struct_time(tm_year=2022, tm_mon=12, tm_mday=28, tm_hour=8, tm_min=8, tm_sec=53, tm_wday=2, tm_yday=362, tm_isdst=0)

year: 2022
tm_hour: 8

Here, if no argument or None is passed to gmtime(), the value returned by time() is used.

Python time.mktime() Function

The mktime() function takes struct_time (a tuple containing 9 elements corresponding to struct_time) as an argument and returns the seconds passed since epoch in local time.

The struct_time has the following structure:

(year, month, day, hour, minute, second, weekday, day of the year, daylight saving)

Let's see an example,

import time

time_tuple = (2022, 12, 28, 8, 44, 4, 4, 362, 0)

# convert time_tuple to seconds since epoch
seconds = time.mktime(time_tuple)

print(seconds)

# Output: 1672217044.0

Here, we have converted the time_tuple to seconds since the epoch.

Python time.asctime() Function

In Python, the asctime() function takes struct_time as an argument and returns a string representing it.

Similar to mktime(), the time_tuple has the following structure:

(year, month, day, hour, minute, second, weekday, day of the year, daylight saving)

Let's see an example,

import time

t = (2022, 12, 28, 8, 44, 4, 4, 362, 0)

result = time.asctime(t)
print("Result:", result)

# Output: Result: Fri Dec 28 08:44:04 2022

Here, we can see time.asctime() converts the time tuple to a human-readable string.

Python time.strftime() Function

The strftime() function takes struct_time (or tuple corresponding to it) as an argument and returns a string representing it based on the format code used. For example,

import time

named_tuple = time.localtime() # get struct_time
time_string = time.strftime("%m/%d/%Y, %H:%M:%S", named_tuple)

print(time_string)

Output

12/29/2022, 08:36:22

Here, %Y, %m, %d, %H etc. are format codes.

• %Y - year [0001,..., 2018, 2019,..., 9999]
• %m - month [01, 02, ..., 11, 12]
• %d - day [01, 02, ..., 30, 31]
• %H - hour [00, 01, ..., 22, 23
• %M - minutes [00, 01, ..., 58, 59]
• %S - second [00, 01, ..., 58, 61]

To learn more, visit time.strftime().

Python time.strptime() Function

The strptime() function parses a string representing time and returns struct_time.

import time

time_string = "14 July, 2023"
result = time.strptime(time_string, "%d %B, %Y")

print(result)

Output

time.struct_time(tm_year=2023, tm_mon=7, tm_mday=14, tm_hour=0, tm_min=0, tm_sec=0, tm_wday=4, tm_yday=195, tm_isdst=-1)

Here, strptime() parses a string and convert it to the struct_time object.