Question

I have a simple script:

now = datetime.datetime.now()
print "%d%d%d%d%d" % ( now.year, now.month, now.day, now.hour, now.minute )

result:

20111124149

How to get result:

201111241409

?

Answer 1

Specify that the numbers should have width two and be zero-padded:

now = datetime.datetime.now()
print "%04d%02d%02d%02d%02d" % ( now.year, now.month, now.day, now.hour, now.minute )

If we break one of the components down, we get:

• % marks the start of a substitution target.
• 0 makes the result zero-padded.
• 2 means, that the result should be 2 characters wide.
• d means that it’s a decimal value.

Further information:

• String Formatting Operations in the Python manual