Python pytz timezone gives just same as UTC time

Question

On Linux, I'm trying to get timezone converted time using pytz. But, below code does not return correct 'Asial/Seoul' time.

from datetime import datetime
from pytz
seoul = pytz.timezone('Asia/Seoul')
curtime = seoul.localize(datetime.now())

This is how I tested in Linux. datetime.now() returns UTC time. And, pytz timezone with 'Asia/Seoul' also returns same UTC time.

I'm looking for answer how to get correct timezone time with pytz.

Answer 1

You're localising a naïve datetime. This means you have a datetime with no timezone information; using localize on it means you're attaching timezone information where there previously was none. Compare:

>>> datetime.now()
datetime.datetime(2017, 4, 20, 14, 0, 0, 0)
>>> seoul.localize(datetime.now())
datetime.datetime(2017, 4, 20, 14, 0, 0, 0, tzinfo=<DstTzInfo 'Asia/Seoul' KST+9:00:00 STD>)

It's the same time, once with and once without timezone information.

If you want to get the current time in Seoul, you need to create the datetime with that timezone:

>>> datetime.now(tz=seoul)
datetime.datetime(2017, 4, 20, 21, 0, 0, 0, tzinfo=<DstTzInfo 'Asia/Seoul' KST+9:00:00 STD>)

Or, you take a timestamp which already has a timezone, and convert it:

>>> datetime.now(tz=timezone.utc).astimezone(seoul)
datetime.datetime(2017, 4, 20, 21, 0, 0, 0, tzinfo=<DstTzInfo 'Asia/Seoul' KST+9:00:00 STD>)

You cannot do a timezone conversion from a naïve timestamp (without timezone), since that inherently has no meaning.