Convert python datetime to epoch with strftime

Question

If you want to convert a python datetime to seconds since epoch you could do it explicitly:

>>> (datetime.datetime(2012,04,01,0,0) - datetime.datetime(1970,1,1)).total_seconds()
1333238400.0

In Python 3.3+ you can use timestamp() instead:

>>> datetime.datetime(2012,4,1,0,0).timestamp()
1333234800.0

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Why you should not use datetime.strftime('%s')

Python doesn't actually support %s as an argument to strftime (if you check at http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-behavior it's not in the list), the only reason it's working is because Python is passing the information to your system's strftime, which uses your local timezone.

>>> datetime.datetime(2012,04,01,0,0).strftime('%s')
'1333234800'

I had serious issues with Timezones and such. The way Python handles all that happen to be pretty confusing (to me). Things seem to be working fine using the calendar module (see links 1, 2, 3 and 4).

>>> import datetime
>>> import calendar
>>> aprilFirst=datetime.datetime(2012, 04, 01, 0, 0)
>>> calendar.timegm(aprilFirst.timetuple())
1333238400

import time
from datetime import datetime
now = datetime.now()

time.mktime(now.timetuple())

import time
from datetime import datetime
now = datetime.now()

# same as above except keeps microseconds
time.mktime(now.timetuple()) + now.microsecond * 1e-6

(Sorry, it wouldn't let me comment on existing answer)

if you just need a timestamp in unix /epoch time, this one line works:

created_timestamp = int((datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.datetime(1970,1,1)).total_seconds())
>>> created_timestamp
1522942073L

and depends only on datetime works in python2 and python3