How do you get the time in a specific timezone python?

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Timezone is defined as a geographical area or region throughout which standard time is observed. It basically refers to the local time of a region or country. Most of the time zones are offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the world’s standard for time zone.
In order to get the current time of different time zones, we will be using the pytz python library.

How to get the current time ?

In order to get the local time, we can use the time module. Some important functions of the time module

• localtime() – it helps to get the current local time
• strftime(“%H:%M:%S”, t) – it helps to decide the format of the time to be used to display the time

How to get current time in different zones ?

In order to get the current time of a particular timezone there is a need to use the pytz Python library. Some of the important commands of pytz library are

• utc – it helps to get the standard UTC time zone
• timezone() – it helps to get the time zone of a particular location
• now() – it helps to get the date, time, utc standard in default format
• astimezone() – it helps to convert the time of a particular time zone into another time zone

Examples:

import time

curr_time = time.localtime()

curr_clock = time.strftime("%H:%M:%S", curr_time)

print(curr_clock)

Output:

11:58:19

We will get the local current time of the region and the standard UTC time
Examples:

from datetime import datetime

import pytz

UTC = pytz.utc

IST = pytz.timezone('Asia/Kolkata')

print("UTC in Default Format : ", 

      datetime.now(UTC))

print("IST in Default Format : ", 

      datetime.now(IST))

datetime_utc = datetime.now(UTC)

print("Date & Time in UTC : ",

      datetime_utc.strftime('%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'))

datetime_ist = datetime.now(IST)

print("Date & Time in IST : ", 

      datetime_ist.strftime('%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'))

Output:
UTC in Default Format :  2020-03-31 07:15:59.640418+00:00
IST in Default Format :  2020-03-31 12:45:59.692642+05:30
Date & Time in UTC :  2020:03:31 07:15:59 UTC+0000
Date & Time in IST :  2020:03:31 12:45:59 IST+0530

Comparing the UTC and IST format of time zones of different regions
Examples:

from datetime import datetime

import pytz

UTC = pytz.utc

timeZ_Kl = pytz.timezone('Asia/Kolkata') 

timeZ_Ny = pytz.timezone('America/New_York')

timeZ_Ma = pytz.timezone('Africa/Maseru')

timeZ_Ce = pytz.timezone('US/Central')

timeZ_At = pytz.timezone('Europe/Athens')

dt_Kl = datetime.now(timeZ_Kl)

dt_Ny = datetime.now(timeZ_Ny)

dt_Ma = datetime.now(timeZ_Ma)

dt_Ce = datetime.now(timeZ_Ce)

dt_At = datetime.now(timeZ_At)

utc_Kl = dt_Kl.astimezone(UTC)

utc_Ny = dt_Ny.astimezone(UTC)

utc_Ma = dt_Ma.astimezone(UTC)

utc_Ce = dt_Ce.astimezone(UTC)

utc_At = dt_At.astimezone(UTC)

print("UTC Format \t\t\t  IST Format")

print(utc_Kl.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'),

      "\t ",

      dt_Kl.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'))

print(utc_Ny.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'),

      "\t ",

      dt_Kl.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'))

print(utc_Ma.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'),

      "\t ",

      dt_Kl.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'))

print(utc_Ce.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'),

      "\t ",

      dt_Kl.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'))

print(utc_At.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'),

      "\t ",

      dt_Kl.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z %z'))

Output:
UTC Format               IST Format
2020-03-31 11:21:13 UTC +0000       2020-03-31 16:51:13 IST +0530
2020-03-31 11:21:13 UTC +0000       2020-03-31 16:51:13 IST +0530
2020-03-31 11:21:13 UTC +0000       2020-03-31 16:51:13 IST +0530
2020-03-31 11:21:13 UTC +0000       2020-03-31 16:51:13 IST +0530
2020-03-31 11:21:13 UTC +0000       2020-03-31 16:51:13 IST +0530

Thus we can conclude that although different regions have different regional time zones but when converted to the UTC time zone all of them gave same value. Thus we can say that

• IST is +0530 hrs ahead of UTC
• EDT is -0400 hrs before of UTC
• SAST is +0200 hrs ahead of UTC
• CDT is -0500 hrs before of UTC
• EEST is +0300 hrs ahead of UTC