A quick command line utility for printing out dates formatted as you'd like them. I use this utility to quickly print out JSON formatted strings, or strings for use in code documentation.

clock.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys
from datetime import datetime
from dateutil.tz import tzlocal

class Clock(object):
    
    FORMATS = {
        "code":"%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y %z",
        "json":"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ",
        "cute":"%b %d, %Y", 
    }

    @classmethod
    def local_now(self):
        return datetime.now(tzlocal())

    @classmethod
    def utc_now(self):
        return datetime.utcnow()

    def __init__(self, formats={}):
        self.formats = self.FORMATS
        self.formats.update(formats)
     
    def _local_format(self, fmt):
        return Clock.local_now().strftime(fmt)

    def _utc_format(self, fmt):
        return Clock.utc_now().strftime(fmt)

    def get_stamp(self, name):
        name  = name.strip("-")
        mname = name + "_stamp"

        # Try to find method table first
        if hasattr(self, mname):
            method = getattr(self, mname)
            return method()

        # Try to use the format string with local timezone
        if name in self.formats:
            return self._local_format(self.formats[name])

        return None

    def print_stamp(self, name):
            stamp = self.get_stamp(name)
            if stamp:
                print stamp
            else:
                print "No stamp format for name %s" % name

    def help_stamp(self):

        output = ["Prints a timestamp represented with a format.",
                  "",
                  "The formats are stored in a lookup table with names, that",
                  "you can pass to the function. For instance, if you pass the",
                  "following arguments, you'll get the following results:",
                  ""]

        for name in ('--code', '--json'):
            output.append("\t%s: %s" % (name, self.get_stamp(name)))
    
        output.append("")
        output.append("The current formats are:")
        output.append("")

        for item in self.formats.items():
            output.append("\t%s: \"%s\"" % item)
        output.append("")

        output.append("Note that the timezone will default to the system timezone unless")
        output.append("The format requires a UTC or other timezone (like JSON)")
        output.append("")

        return "\n".join(output)

    def json_stamp(self):
        return self._utc_format(self.formats['json'])


if __name__ == "__main__":

    args  = sys.argv[1:]
    clock = Clock()
    for arg in args:
        clock.print_stamp(arg)