python - How do you add datetime to a logfile name?

Question

When I create my logfile, I want the name to contain the datetime.

In Python you can get the current datetime as:

>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> datetime.now()
datetime.datetime(2012, 2, 3, 21, 35, 9, 559000)

The str version is

>>> str(datetime.now())
'2012-02-03 21:35:22.247000'

Not a very nice str to append to the logfile name! I would like my logfile to be something like:

mylogfile_21_35_03_02_2012.log

Is there something Python can do to make this easy? I am creating the log file as:

fh = logging.FileHandler("mylogfile" + datetimecomp + ".log")

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9135936/how-do-you-add-datetime-to-a-logfile-name

Answer 1

You need datetime.strftime(), this allows you to format the timestamp using all of the directives of C's strftime(). In your specific case:

>>> datetime.now().strftime('mylogfile_%H_%M_%d_%m_%Y.log')
'mylogfile_08_48_04_02_2012.log'