[python] How to get min, seconds and milliseconds from datetime.now() in python?

>>> a = str(datetime.now())
>>> a
'2012-03-22 11:16:11.343000'

I need to get a string like that: '16:11.34'.

Should be as compact as possible.

Or should I use time() instead? How do I get it?

if you want your datetime.now() precise till the minute , you can use

datetime.strptime(datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M'), '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M')

similarly for hour it will be

datetime.strptime(datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H'), '%Y-%m-%d %H')

It is kind of a hack, if someone has a better solution, I am all ears

This solution is very similar to that provided by @gdw2 , only that the string formatting is correctly done to match what you asked for - "Should be as compact as possible"

>>> import datetime
>>> a = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> "%s:%s.%s" % (a.minute, a.second, str(a.microsecond)[:2])
'31:45.57'

Another similar solution:

>>> a=datetime.now()
>>> "%s:%s.%s" % (a.hour, a.minute, a.microsecond)
'14:28.971209'

Yes, I know I didn't get the string formatting perfect.

Sorry to open an old thread but I'm posting just in case it helps someone. This seems to be the easiest way to do this in Python 3.

from datetime import datetime

Date = str(datetime.now())[:10]
Hour = str(datetime.now())[11:13]
Minute = str(datetime.now())[14:16]
Second = str(datetime.now())[17:19]
Millisecond = str(datetime.now())[20:]

If you need the values as a number just cast them as an int e.g

Hour = int(str(datetime.now())[11:13])

time.second helps a lot put that at the top of your python.

import datetime from datetime

now = datetime.now()

print "%0.2d:%0.2d:%0.2d" % (now.hour, now.minute, now.second)

You can do the same with day & month etc.