Using %f with strftime() in Python to get microseconds

You are looking at the wrong documentation. The time module has different documentation.

You can use the datetime module strftime like this:

>>> from datetime import datetime
>>>
>>> now = datetime.now()
>>> now.strftime("%H:%M:%S.%f")
'12:19:40.948000'

You can also get microsecond precision from the time module using its time() function.
(time.time() returns the time in seconds since epoch. Its fractional part is the time in microseconds, which is what you want.)

>>> from time import time
>>> time()
... 1310554308.287459   # the fractional part is what you want.


# comparision with strftime -
>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> from time import time
>>> datetime.now().strftime("%f"), time()
... ('287389', 1310554310.287459)

When the “%f” for micro seconds isn’t working, please use the following method:

import datetime

def getTimeStamp():
    dt = datetime.datetime.now()
    return dt.strftime("%Y%j%H%M%S") + str(dt.microsecond)

This should do the work

import datetime
datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S.%f")

It will print

HH:MM:SS.microseconds like this e.g 14:38:19.425961

With Python’s time module you can’t get microseconds with %f.

For those who still want to go with time module only, here is a workaround:

now = time.time()
mlsec = repr(now).split('.')[1][:3]
print time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.{} %Z".format(mlsec), time.localtime(now))

You should get something like 2017-01-16 16:42:34.625 EET (yes, I use milliseconds as it’s fairly enough).

To break the code into details, paste the below code into a Python console:

import time

# Get current timestamp
now = time.time()

# Debug now
now
print now
type(now)

# Debug strf time
struct_now = time.localtime(now)
print struct_now
type(struct_now)

# Print nicely formatted date
print time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z", struct_now)

# Get miliseconds
mlsec = repr(now).split('.')[1][:3]
print mlsec

# Get your required timestamp string
timestamp = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.{} %Z".format(mlsec), struct_now)
print timestamp

For clarification purposes, I also paste my Python 2.7.12 result here:

>>> import time
>>> # get current timestamp
... now = time.time()
>>> # debug now
... now
1484578293.519106
>>> print now
1484578293.52
>>> type(now)
<type 'float'>
>>> # debug strf time
... struct_now = time.localtime(now)
>>> print struct_now
time.struct_time(tm_year=2017, tm_mon=1, tm_mday=16, tm_hour=16, tm_min=51, tm_sec=33, tm_wday=0, tm_yday=16, tm_isdst=0)
>>> type(struct_now)
<type 'time.struct_time'>
>>> # print nicely formatted date
... print time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z", struct_now)
2017-01-16 16:51:33 EET
>>> # get miliseconds
... mlsec = repr(now).split('.')[1][:3]
>>> print mlsec
519
>>> # get your required timestamp string
... timestamp = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.{} %Z".format(mlsec), struct_now)
>>> print timestamp
2017-01-16 16:51:33.519 EET
>>>

If you want an integer, try this code:

import datetime
print(datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%s%f")[:13])

Output:

1545474382803

If you want speed, try this:

def _timestamp(prec=0):
    t = time.time()
    s = time.strftime("%H:%M:%S", time.localtime(t))
    if prec > 0:
        s += ("%.9f" % (t % 1,))[1:2+prec]
    return s

Where prec is precision — how many decimal places you want.
Please note that the function does not have issues with leading zeros in fractional part like some other solutions presented here.