Python:
Getting the current date

How to:

Using the standard library datetime:

The datetime module in Python’s standard library provides classes for manipulating dates and times. To get the current date, you can use the date.today() method.

from datetime import date

today = date.today()
print(today)  # Output: YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2023-04-05)

Time Formatting:

If you require the current date in a different format, the strftime method allows you to specify custom date formatting:

from datetime import date

today = date.today()
formatted_date = today.strftime('%B %d, %Y')  # Example format: "April 05, 2023"
print(formatted_date)

Using pendulum for more flexibility (a popular third-party library):

Pendulum is a third-party library that offers a more intuitive approach to dealing with dates and times in Python. It extends the standard datetime functionalities and simplifies time zone management, among other features.

First, ensure you’ve installed pendulum via pip:

pip install pendulum

Then, to get the current date:

import pendulum

today = pendulum.now().date()
print(today)  # Output: YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2023-04-05)

With pendulum, formatting is also straightforward and similar to the strftime approach:

import pendulum

today = pendulum.now()
formatted_date = today.to_formatted_date_string()  # Default format: "Apr 5, 2023"
print(formatted_date)