Instruction
Great!
When we use print(datetime), we see datetimes in the following format:
2018-12-01 09:45:00
However, we may want to use another format. To that end, we can apply the strftime() function. Take a look:
fra_mad_1_Dec = datetime.datetime(2018, 12, 1, 8, 15, 0)
print('Boarding starts at', fra_mad_1_Dec.strftime('%H:%M on %A, %d %B %Y'))
Result:
Boarding starts at 08:15 on Saturday, 01 December 2018
The datetime.strftime() function allows us to specify the exact output format of a datetime object. In the example above, we used the following elements:
%H– hour (24-hour clock)%M– minutes%A– weekday (full name)%d– zero-padded day of the month%B– month's full name%Y– year
We can swap the order of elements, add various characters between them, or change the elements themselves.
We highly recommend you take a look at Python's official documentation or at this site with memorable URL, which lists all possible formatting elements.
Exercise
Create a function named format_meeting(meeting_title, meeting_start), where meeting_title is a string and meeting_start is a datetime.
For the following invocation:
format_meeting("Budget review", datetime.datime(2018, 10, 5, 13, 30))
the function should return a string that contains meeting information in the following format:
Budget review - Fri, 05 Oct 2018, 01:30 PM
Use the following formatting elements:
%a– weekday (abbreviated)%d– day of month%b– month (abbreviated)%Y– year%I– hour (12-hour clock)%M– minutes%p– AM or PM
You can use the sample_meeting_title and sample_meeting_datetime variables to test your function.
Stuck? Here's a hint!
Use:
strftime('%a, %d %b %Y, %I:%M %p')
