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# QDateTime Class Reference
[QtCore module]

The QDateTime class provides date and time functions. More...

### Methods

- __init__ (self)
- __init__ (self, QDateTime other)
- __init__ (self, QDate)
- __init__ (self, QDate, QTime, Qt.TimeSpec spec = Qt.LocalTime)
- __init__ (self, int y, int m, int d, int h, int m, int s = 0, int ms = 0, int spec = 0)
- QDateTime addDays (self, int days)
- QDateTime addMonths (self, int months)
- QDateTime addMSecs (self, long msecs)
- QDateTime addSecs (self, int secs)
- QDateTime addYears (self, int years)
- QDate date (self)
- int daysTo (self, QDateTime)
- bool isNull (self)
- bool isValid (self)
- int secsTo (self, QDateTime)
- setDate (self, QDate date)
- setTime (self, QTime time)
- setTime_t (self, unsigned long secsSince1Jan1970UTC)
- setTimeSpec (self, Qt.TimeSpec spec)
- QTime time (self)
- Qt.TimeSpec timeSpec (self)
- QDateTime toLocalTime (self)
- object toPyDateTime (self)
- QString toString (self, Qt.DateFormat f = Qt.TextDate)
- QString toString (self, QString format)
- unsigned long toTime_t (self)
- QDateTime toTimeSpec (self, Qt.TimeSpec spec)
- QDateTime toUTC (self)

### Static Methods

- QDateTime currentDateTime ()
- QDateTime fromString (QString s, Qt.DateFormat f = Qt.TextDate)
- QDateTime fromString (QString s, QString format)
- QDateTime fromTime_t (unsigned long secsSince1Jan1970UTC)

### Special Methods

- bool __eq__ (self, QDateTime other)
- bool __ge__ (self, QDateTime other)
- bool __gt__ (self, QDateTime other)
- bool __le__ (self, QDateTime other)
- bool __lt__ (self, QDateTime other)
- bool __ne__ (self, QDateTime other)
- int __nonzero__ (self)
- object __repr__ (self)

## Detailed Description

This class can be pickled.

A Python datetime object may be used whenever a QDateTime is expected.

The QDateTime class provides date and time functions.

A QDateTime object contains a calendar date and a clock time (a "datetime"). It is a combination of the QDate and QTime classes. It can read the current datetime from the system clock. It provides functions for comparing datetimes and for manipulating a datetime by adding a number of seconds, days, months, or years.

A QDateTime object is typically created either by giving a date and time explicitly in the constructor, or by using the static function currentDateTime() that returns a QDateTime object set to the system clock's time. The date and time can be changed with setDate() and setTime(). A datetime can also be set using the setTime_t() function that takes a POSIX-standard "number of seconds since 00:00:00 on January 1, 1970" value. The fromString() function returns a QDateTime, given a string and a date format used to interpret the date within the string.

The date() and time() functions provide access to the date and time parts of the datetime. The same information is provided in textual format by the toString() function.

QDateTime provides a full set of operators to compare two QDateTime objects where smaller means earlier and larger means later.

You can increment (or decrement) a datetime by a given number of seconds using addSecs(), or days using addDays(). Similarly you can use addMonths() and addYears(). The daysTo() function returns the number of days between two datetimes, and secsTo() returns the number of seconds between two datetimes.

QDateTime can store datetimes as local time or as UTC. QDateTime.currentDateTime() returns a QDateTime expressed as local time; use toUTC() to convert it to UTC. You can also use timeSpec() to find out if a QDateTime object stores a UTC time or a local time. Operations such as addSecs() and secsTo() are aware of daylight saving time (DST).

See also QDate, QTime, and QDateTimeEdit.

## Method Documentation

### QDateTime.__init__ (self)

Constructs a null datetime (i.e. null date and null time). A null datetime is invalid, since the date is invalid.

See also isValid().

### QDateTime.__init__ (self, QDateTime other)

Constructs a datetime with the given date, a valid time(00:00:00.000), and sets the timeSpec() to Qt.LocalTime.

### QDateTime.__init__ (self, QDate)

Constructs a datetime with the given date and time, using the time specification defined by spec.

If date is valid and time is not, the time will be set to midnight.

### QDateTime.__init__ (self, QDate, QTime, Qt.TimeSpec spec = Qt.LocalTime)

Constructs a copy of the other datetime.

### QDateTime.__init__ (self, int y, int m, int d, int h, int m, int s = 0, int ms = 0, int spec = 0)

### QDateTime QDateTime.addDays (self, int days)

Returns a QDateTime object containing a datetime ndays days later than the datetime of this object (or earlier if ndays is negative).

See also daysTo(), addMonths(), addYears(), and addSecs().

### QDateTime QDateTime.addMonths (self, int months)

Returns a QDateTime object containing a datetime nmonths months later than the datetime of this object (or earlier if nmonths is negative).

See also daysTo(), addDays(), addYears(), and addSecs().

### QDateTime QDateTime.addMSecs (self, long msecs)

Returns a QDateTime object containing a datetime msecs miliseconds later than the datetime of this object (or earlier if msecs is negative).

See also addSecs(), secsTo(), addDays(), addMonths(), and addYears().

### QDateTime QDateTime.addSecs (self, int secs)

Returns a QDateTime object containing a datetime s seconds later than the datetime of this object (or earlier if s is negative).

See also addMSecs(), secsTo(), addDays(), addMonths(), and addYears().

### QDateTime QDateTime.addYears (self, int years)

Returns a QDateTime object containing a datetime nyears years later than the datetime of this object (or earlier if nyears is negative).

See also daysTo(), addDays(), addMonths(), and addSecs().

### QDateTime QDateTime.currentDateTime ()

Returns the current datetime, as reported by the system clock, in the local time zone.

See also QDate.currentDate(), QTime.currentTime(), and toTimeSpec().

### QDate QDateTime.date (self)

Returns the date part of the datetime.

See also setDate(), time(), and timeSpec().

### int QDateTime.daysTo (self, QDateTime)

Returns the number of days from this datetime to the other datetime. If the other datetime is earlier than this datetime, the value returned is negative.

See also addDays() and secsTo().

### QDateTime QDateTime.fromString (QString s, Qt.DateFormat f = Qt.TextDate)

Returns the QDateTime represented by the string, using the format given, or an invalid datetime if this is not possible.

Note for Qt.TextDate: It is recommended that you use the English short month names (e.g. "Jan"). Although localized month names can also be used, they depend on the user's locale settings.

### QDateTime QDateTime.fromString (QString s, QString format)

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

Returns the QDateTime represented by the string, using the format given, or an invalid datetime if the string cannot be parsed.

These expressions may be used for the date part of the format string:

Expression | Output
--- | ---
d | the day as number without a leading zero (1 to 31)
dd | the day as number with a leading zero (01 to 31)
ddd | the abbreviated localized day name (e.g. 'Mon' to 'Sun'). Uses QDate.shortDayName().
dddd | the long localized day name (e.g. 'Monday' to 'Sunday'). Uses QDate.longDayName().
M | the month as number without a leading zero (1-12)
MM | the month as number with a leading zero (01-12)
MMM | the abbreviated localized month name (e.g. 'Jan' to 'Dec'). Uses QDate.shortMonthName().
MMMM | the long localized month name (e.g. 'January' to 'December'). Uses QDate.longMonthName().
yy | the year as two digit number (00-99)
yyyy | the year as four digit number

These expressions may be used for the time part of the format string:

Expression | Output
--- | ---
h | the hour without a leading zero (0 to 23 or 1 to 12 if AM/PM display)
hh | the hour with a leading zero (00 to 23 or 01 to 12 if AM/PM display)
H | the hour without a leading zero (0 to 23, even with AM/PM display)
HH | the hour with a leading zero (00 to 23, even with AM/PM display)
m | the minute without a leading zero (0 to 59)
mm | the minute with a leading zero (00 to 59)
s | the second without a leading zero (0 to 59)
ss | the second with a leading zero (00 to 59)
z | the milliseconds without leading zeroes (0 to 999)
zzz | the milliseconds with leading zeroes (000 to 999)
AP or A | interpret as an AM/PM time. AP must be either "AM" or "PM".
ap or a | Interpret as an AM/PM time. ap must be either "am" or "pm".

All other input characters will be treated as text. Any sequence of characters that are enclosed in singlequotes will also be treated as text and not be used as an expression.

             QTime time1 = QTime.fromString("131", "HHh");
             // time1 is 13:00:00
             QTime time1 = QTime.fromString("1apA", "1amAM");
             // time1 is 01:00:00

             QDateTime dateTime2 = QDateTime.fromString("M1d1y9800:01:02",
                                                         "'M'M'd'd'y'yyhh:mm:ss");
             // dateTime is 1 January 1998 00:01:02

If the format is not satisfied an invalid QDateTime is returned. The expressions that don't have leading zeroes (d, M, h, m, s, z) will be greedy. This means that they will use two digits even if this will put them outside the range and/or leave too few digits for other sections.

             QDateTime dateTime = QDateTime.fromString("130", "Mm"); // invalid

This could have meant 1 January 00:30.00 but the M will grab two digits.

For any field that is not represented in the format the following defaults are used:

Field | Default value
--- | ---
Year | 1900
Month | 1 (January)
Day | 1
Hour | 0
Minute | 0
Second | 0

For example:

             QDateTime dateTime = QDateTime.fromString("1.30.1", "M.d.s");
             // dateTime is January 30 in the current year 00:00:01

QDateTime.toString() QTime.toString()

See also QDate.fromString(), QTime.fromString(), and QDate.toString().

### QDateTime QDateTime.fromTime_t (unsigned long secsSince1Jan1970UTC)

Returns a datetime whose date and time are the number of seconds that have passed since 1970-01-01T00:00:00, Coordinated Universal Time (Qt.UTC). On systems that do not support timezones, the time will be set as if local time were Qt.UTC.

This function was introduced in Qt 4.2.

See also toTime_t() and setTime_t().

### bool QDateTime.isNull (self)

Returns true if both the date and the time are null; otherwise returns false. A null datetime is invalid.

See also QDate.isNull(), QTime.isNull(), and isValid().

### bool QDateTime.isValid (self)

Returns true if both the date and the time are valid; otherwise returns false.

See also QDate.isValid() and QTime.isValid().

### int QDateTime.secsTo (self, QDateTime)

Returns the number of seconds from this datetime to the other datetime. If the other datetime is earlier than this datetime, the value returned is negative.

Before performing the comparison, the two datetimes are converted to Qt.UTC to ensure that the result is correct if one of the two datetimes has daylight saving time (DST) and the other doesn't.

Example:

             QDateTime now = QDateTime.currentDateTime();
             QDateTime xmas(QDate(now.date().year(), 12, 25), QTime(0, 0));
             qDebug("There are %d seconds to Christmas", now.secsTo(xmas));

See also addSecs(), daysTo(), and QTime.secsTo().

### QDateTime.setDate (self, QDate date)

Sets the date part of this datetime to date. If no time is set, it is set to midnight.

See also date(), setTime(), and setTimeSpec().

### QDateTime.setTime (self, QTime time)

Sets the time part of this datetime to time.

See also time(), setDate(), and setTimeSpec().

### QDateTime.setTime_t (self, unsigned long secsSince1Jan1970UTC)

Sets the date and time given the number of seconds that have passed since 1970-01-01T00:00:00, Coordinated Universal Time (Qt.UTC). On systems that do not support timezones this function will behave as if local time were Qt.UTC.

See also toTime_t().

### QDateTime.setTimeSpec (self, Qt.TimeSpec spec)

Sets the time specification used in this datetime to spec.

See also timeSpec(), setDate(), setTime(), and Qt.TimeSpec.

### QTime QDateTime.time (self)

Returns the time part of the datetime.

See also setTime(), date(), and timeSpec().

### Qt.TimeSpec QDateTime.timeSpec (self)

Returns the time specification of the datetime.

See also setTimeSpec(), date(), time(), and Qt.TimeSpec.

### QDateTime QDateTime.toLocalTime (self)

Returns a datetime containing the date and time information in this datetime, but specified using the Qt.LocalTime definition.

See also toTimeSpec().

### object QDateTime.toPyDateTime (self)

### QString QDateTime.toString (self, Qt.DateFormat f = Qt.TextDate)

Returns the datetime as a string. The format parameter determines the format of the result string.

These expressions may be used for the date:

Expression | Output
--- | ---
d | the day as number without a leading zero (1 to 31)
dd | the day as number with a leading zero (01 to 31)
ddd | the abbreviated localized day name (e.g. 'Mon' to 'Sun'). Uses QDate.shortDayName().
dddd | the long localized day name (e.g. 'Monday' to 'Qt.Sunday'). Uses QDate.longDayName().
M | the month as number without a leading zero (1-12)
MM | the month as number with a leading zero (01-12)
MMM | the abbreviated localized month name (e.g. 'Jan' to 'Dec'). Uses QDate.shortMonthName().
MMMM | the long localized month name (e.g. 'January' to 'December'). Uses QDate.longMonthName().
yy | the year as two digit number (00-99)
yyyy | the year as four digit number

These expressions may be used for the time:

Expression | Output
--- | ---
h | the hour without a leading zero (0 to 23 or 1 to 12 if AM/PM display)
hh | the hour with a leading zero (00 to 23 or 01 to 12 if AM/PM display)
m | the minute without a leading zero (0 to 59)
mm | the minute with a leading zero (00 to 59)
s | the second without a leading zero (0 to 59)
ss | the second with a leading zero (00 to 59)
z | the milliseconds without leading zeroes (0 to 999)
zzz | the milliseconds with leading zeroes (000 to 999)
AP | use AM/PM display. AP will be replaced by either "AM" or "PM".
ap | use am/pm display. ap will be replaced by either "am" or "pm".

All other input characters will be ignored. Any sequence of characters that are enclosed in singlequotes will be treated as text and not be used as an expression. Two consecutive singlequotes ("''") are replaced by a singlequote in the output.

Example format strings (assumed that the QDateTime is 21 May 2001 14:13:09):

Format | Result
--- | ---
dd.MM.yyyy | 21.05.2001
ddd MMMM d yy | Tue May 21 01
hh:mm:ss.zzz | 14:13:09.042
h:m:s ap | 2:13:9 pm

If the datetime is invalid, an empty string will be returned.

See also QDate.toString() and QTime.toString().

### QString QDateTime.toString (self, QString format)

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience.

Returns the datetime as a string in the format given.

If the format is Qt.TextDate, the string is formatted in the default way. QDate.shortDayName(), QDate.shortMonthName(), and QTime.toString() are used to generate the string, so the day and month names will be localized names. An example of this formatting is "Wed May 20 03:40:13 1998".

If the format is Qt.ISODate, the string format corresponds to the ISO 8601 extended specification for representations of dates and times, taking the form YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.

If the format is Qt.SystemLocaleShortDate or Qt.SystemLocaleLongDate, the string format depends on the locale settings of the system. Identical to calling QLocale.system().toString(datetime, QLocale.ShortFormat) or QLocale.system().toString(datetime, QLocale.LongFormat).

If the format is Qt.DefaultLocaleShortDate or Qt.DefaultLocaleLongDate, the string format depends on the default application locale. This is the locale set with QLocale.setDefault(), or the system locale if no default locale has been set. Identical to calling QLocale().toString(datetime, QLocale.ShortFormat) or QLocale().toString(datetime, QLocale.LongFormat).

If the datetime is invalid, an empty string will be returned.

Warning: The Qt.ISODate format is only valid for years in the range 0 to 9999. This restriction may apply to locale-aware formats as well, depending on the locale settings.

See also QDate.toString(), QTime.toString(), and Qt.DateFormat.

### unsigned long QDateTime.toTime_t (self)

Returns the datetime as the number of seconds that have passed since 1970-01-01T00:00:00, Coordinated Universal Time (Qt.UTC).

On systems that do not support timezones, this function will behave as if local time were Qt.UTC.

See also setTime_t().

### QDateTime QDateTime.toTimeSpec (self, Qt.TimeSpec spec)

Returns a copy of this datetime configured to use the given time specification.

See also timeSpec(), toUTC(), and toLocalTime().

### QDateTime QDateTime.toUTC (self)

Returns a datetime containing the date and time information in this datetime, but specified using the Qt.UTC definition.

See also toTimeSpec().

### bool QDateTime.__eq__ (self, QDateTime other)

### bool QDateTime.__ge__ (self, QDateTime other)

### bool QDateTime.__gt__ (self, QDateTime other)

### bool QDateTime.__le__ (self, QDateTime other)

### bool QDateTime.__lt__ (self, QDateTime other)

### bool QDateTime.__ne__ (self, QDateTime other)

### int QDateTime.__nonzero__ (self)

### object QDateTime.__repr__ (self)