Get today and yesterday date in Python

In Python, the datetime library lets you get the current date or datetime.

# Import library
import datetime

Get current date

# Get date for today
datetime.date.today()
datetime.date(2020, 11, 7)
# Get datetime for now
datetime.datetime.now()
datetime.datetime(2020, 11, 7, 5, 51, 10, 787948)

Add or substract time from current date

# Substract 1 day from today
datetime.date.today() - datetime.timedelta(1)
datetime.date(2020, 11, 6)
# Add 1 week to current date
timedatetime.datetime.now() + datetime.timedelta(weeks=1)
datetime.datetime(2020, 11, 14, 5, 51, 10, 807394)

Convert to string

To convert a date or datetime object to a string, simply use strftime().

# Convert yesterday date to a formatted string
yesterday = datetime.date.today() - datetime.timedelta(1)
yesterday.strftime("%Y-%m-%d")
'2020-11-06'