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Python

Welby Obeng
Welby Obeng
20,340 Points
Posted by Welby Obeng
Welby Obeng
20,340 Points

a little confused about python library, class, method

import datetime # This means I'm importing the datetime library correct?

print datetime.datetime.now() # Is the first datetime referring to the library again or class? what is the second datetime? Is now() the method?

print datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%y-%m-%d-%H-%M") # Does datetime.datetime.now() return an object? how can you get strftime method from it if when I print it, it's returning 2012-10-03 15:35:46.461491?

1 Answer

Mario Blokland
Mario Blokland
19,750 Points

Hi Welby Obeng,

import datetime # This means I'm importing the datetime library correct?

correct. 

print datetime.datetime.now() # Is the first datetime referring to the library again or class? 
                                         # what is the second datetime? Is now() the method?

The first datetime is referring to the module. The second one is referring to the datetime class and the method now is inside the class datetime, which is in the module datetime.

print datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%y-%m-%d-%H-%M") 
# Does datetime.datetime.now() return an object? 
# how can you get strftime method from it if when I print it, it's returning 2012-10-03 15:35:46.461491?

Yes, the now()method is returning a datetime object and with the strftime() method, you are declaring how the output of the date object should look like.

It will print the time from your machine on which you run the script on.

Hope I could help. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Welby Obeng
Welby Obeng
20,340 Points
Welby Obeng
Welby Obeng
20,340 Points

so when I print datetime.datetime.now does it print str of the object?

Mario Blokland
Mario Blokland
19,750 Points

Correct Welby,

it outputs the datetime object as a string. The print() function uses the str() function and converts the datetime object to a string.