various date/time conversions in python

convert-datetime-to-unix.py

from datetime import datetime as DT


#------------------ epoch time -----------------#

>>> import time

>>> time.time()
1411060580.205373


#------------------ human-friendly string -----------------#

>>> import time

>>> time.ctime()
'Thu Sep 18 10:16:25 2014'



#------------------ convert datetime to epoch time -----------------#

# begin with a string:
s = "2013-08-13 22:06:01"

# convert to a datetime_obj
dt_obj = DT.strptime(s, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")

dt_obj
# returns: datetime.datetime(2013, 8, 13, 22, 6, 1)

print(dt_obj)
# returns: 2013-08-13 22:06:01

dt_obj
datetime.datetime(2013, 8, 13, 22, 6, 1)

import calendar

# first convert to a utc timetuple, then to unix timestamp
unix_timestamp = calendar.timegm(date_obj.utctimetuple())