Format a datetime into a string with milliseconds

Question

To get a date string with milliseconds (3 decimal places behind seconds), use this:

from datetime import datetime

print datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f')[:-3]

>>>> OUTPUT >>>>
2020-05-04 10:18:32.926

Note: For Python3, print requires parentheses:

print(datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f')[:-3])

With Python 3.6 you can use:

from datetime import datetime
datetime.utcnow().isoformat(sep=' ', timespec='milliseconds')

Output:

'2019-05-10 09:08:53.155'

More info here: https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime.isoformat

print datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M%S%f')

http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior

@Cabbi raised the issue that on some systems, the microseconds format %f may give "0", so it's not portable to simply chop off the last three characters.

The following code carefully formats a timestamp with milliseconds:

from datetime import datetime
(dt, micro) = datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f').split('.')
dt = "%s.%03d" % (dt, int(micro) / 1000)
print dt

Example Output:

2016-02-26 04:37:53.133

To get the exact output that the OP wanted, we have to strip punctuation characters:

from datetime import datetime
(dt, micro) = datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M%S.%f').split('.')
dt = "%s%03d" % (dt, int(micro) / 1000)
print dt

Example Output:

20160226043839901

Probably like this :

import datetime
now = datetime.datetime.now()
now.strftime('%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S.%f')[:-3]  
# [:-3] => Removing the 3 last characters as %f is for microsecs.

import datetime

# convert string into date time format.

str_date = '2016-10-06 15:14:54.322989'
d_date = datetime.datetime.strptime(str_date , '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f')
print(d_date)
print(type(d_date)) # check d_date type.


# convert date time to regular format.

reg_format_date = d_date.strftime("%d %B %Y %I:%M:%S %p")
print(reg_format_date)

# some other date formats.
reg_format_date = d_date.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %I:%M:%S %p")
print(reg_format_date)
reg_format_date = d_date.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
print(reg_format_date)

<<<<<< OUTPUT >>>>>>>

2016-10-06 15:14:54.322989    
<class 'datetime.datetime'>    
06 October 2016 03:14:54 PM    
2016-10-06 03:14:54 PM    
2016-10-06 15:14:54