The datetime object has a method for formatting date objects into readable strings.
The method is called strftime(), and takes one parameter, format, to specify the format of the returned string:
Example
Display the name of the month:
import datetime
x = datetime.datetime(2018, 6, 1)
print(x.strftime("%B"))
June
The table below shows all the codes that you can pass to the strftime() method.
| Directive | Meaning | Example |
| %a | Abbreviated weekday name. | Sun, Mon, ... |
| %A | Full weekday name. | Sunday, Monday, ... |
| %w | Weekday as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 6 |
| %d | Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal. | 01, 02, ..., 31 |
| %-d | Day of the month as a decimal number. | 1, 2, ..., 30 |
| %b | Abbreviated month name. | Jan, Feb, ..., Dec |
| %B | Full month name. | January, February, ... |
| %m | Month as a zero-padded decimal number. | 01, 02, ..., 12 |
| %-m | Month as a decimal number. | 1, 2, ..., 12 |
| %y | Year without century as a zero-padded decimal number. | 00, 01, ..., 99 |
| %-y | Year without century as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 99 |
| %Y | Year with century as a decimal number. | 2013, 2019 etc. |
| %H | Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number. | 00, 01, ..., 23 |
| %-H | Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 23 |
| %I | Hour (12-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number. | 01, 02, ..., 12 |
| %-I | Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number. | 1, 2, ... 12 |
| %p | Locale’s AM or PM. | AM, PM |
| %M | Minute as a zero-padded decimal number. | 00, 01, ..., 59 |
| %-M | Minute as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 59 |
| %S | Second as a zero-padded decimal number. | 00, 01, ..., 59 |
| %-S | Second as a decimal number. | 0, 1, ..., 59 |
| %f | Microsecond as a decimal number, zero-padded on the left. | 000000 - 999999 |
| %z | UTC offset in the form +HHMM or -HHMM. | |
| %Z | Time zone name. | |
| %j | Day of the year as a zero-padded decimal number. | 001, 002, ..., 366 |
| %-j | Day of the year as a decimal number. | 1, 2, ..., 366 |
| %U | Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week). All days in a new year preceding the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0. | 00, 01, ..., 53 |
| %W | Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week). All days in a new year preceding the first Monday are considered to be in week 0. | 00, 01, ..., 53 |
| %c | Locale’s appropriate date and time representation. | Mon Sep 30 07:06:05 2013 |
| %x | Locale’s appropriate date representation. | 09/30/13 |
| %X | Locale’s appropriate time representation. | 07:06:05 |
| %% | A literal '%' character. | % |