Python time time() Method

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The Python time time() method returns the current UTC time. This return value is obtained as a floating point number expressed in seconds since the epoch.

This method does not accept any arguments, hence, it always returns the current UTC time.

Note − Even though the time is always returned as a floating point number, not all systems provide time with a better precision than 1 second. While this function normally returns non-decreasing values, it can return a lower value than a previous call if the system clock has been set back between the two calls. To avoid this precision loss, time_ns() method can be used.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for Python time time() method −

time.time()

Parameters

This method does not accept any parameters.

Return Value

This method returns the current time in UTC.

Example

The following example shows the usage of time() method.

import time

t = time.time()
print("Current UTC Time in seconds:", t)

When we run above program, it produces following result −

Current UTC Time in seconds: 1673432458.9977512

Example

The return value obtained from the time() method can be formatted by passing it as an argument to methods like gmtime() or strftime().

In the following example, we obtained the current time in seconds using the time() method. These seconds are passed as an argument to the gmtime() method to represent it using various fields of the struct_time object to indicate the elements of time. However, as an extra step, we can also try to simplify the structure of this object by passing it as an argument to the strftime() method.

import time

t = time.time()
print("Current UTC Time in seconds:", t)

#Formatting the seconds obtained from time() using gmtime()
fmt = time.gmtime(t)
print("Current Formatted UTC Time:", fmt)

#Formatting the object obtained from gmtime() using strftime()
strf = time.strftime("%D %T", fmt)
print("Current Formatted UTC Time:",strf)

Current UTC Time in seconds: 1673435474.7526345
Current Formatted UTC Time: time.struct_time(tm_year=2023, tm_mon=1, tm_mday=11, tm_hour=11, tm_min=11, tm_sec=14, tm_wday=2, tm_yday=11, tm_isdst=0)
Current Formatted UTC Time: 01/11/23 11:12:11

Example

Not just the UTC time we can also calculate the local time, by passing the return value of this method as an argument to the localtime() method.

We discussed that the time() method deals with UTC time and returns the number of seconds elapsed since the epoch in UTC time. However, if we think from the time-zone point of view, the floating-point number representing these seconds in UTC will be equal to the seconds in local time. Therefore, we can also format the current local time using the localtime() method by passing the return value of the time() method.

import time

t = time.time()
print("Current UTC Time in seconds:", t)

#Formatting the seconds obtained using localtime()
fmt = time.localtime(t)
print("Current Formatted Local Time:", fmt)

#Formatting the seconds obtained using strftime()
strf = time.strftime("%D %T", fmt)
print("Current Formatted Local Time:",strf)

If we compile and run the program above, the output is displayed as follows −

Current UTC Time in seconds: 1673438690.5065289
Current Formatted Local Time: time.struct_time(tm_year=2023, tm_mon=1, tm_mday=11, tm_hour=17, tm_min=34, tm_sec=50, tm_wday=2, tm_yday=11, tm_isdst=0)
Current Formatted Local Time: 01/11/23 17:34:50