Putting the current date into a text variable in YYMMDD format in Python

To obtain the current date in Python and put it into a text variable in YYMMDD format, you can use the datetime module and the strftime() method.

Python Code:

from datetime import date

# Get today's date as a date object
today = date.today()

# Format the date into a string variable in YYMMDD format
# %y gives the two-digit year, %m gives the zero-padded month, and %d gives the # zero-padded day formatted_date_string = today.strftime("%y%m%d")

# Print the result (optional, for verification)
print(f"Today's date in YYMMDD format: {formatted_date_string}")

Steps:

• from datetime import date: This line imports the date class from the built-in datetime module, which is necessary to work with dates in Python.
• today = date.today(): This uses the today() method to get the current local date as a date object.
• today.strftime("%y%m%d"): The strftime() method is then applied to the today object to format it into a string. The format string uses specific directives:
  • %y: Represents the year without the century (e.g., 26 for 2026).
  • %m: Represents the month as a zero-padded decimal number (e.g., 02 for February).
  • %d: Represents the day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number (e.g., 15 for the 15th).

The resulting string, stored in formatted_date_string, will look like 260215 (for February 15, 2026)

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