Date and datetime are objects in Python, so when you manipulate them, you need to declare the datetime function. Datetime can be combined with now() to return the current date and time. If during declaration you get this error “AttributeError: module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘now’“. Do not worry. Keep following our article below to find a quick solution for it. 

What is the datetime module in python?

The datetime module allows us to create a time object and can customize it to our liking. This object is used a lot in practice. For example, if you make a timer, you must definitely use the date module to get the current time, datetime to get the appointment time, then compare and display the results.

Similarly, we must import datetime to use the methods – functions in this module. To get the current date and time, we use the now function in the datetime module.

For example:

import datetime; 

#Returns the current time object
print(datetime.datetime.now())

 output:

2022-07-17 16:16:45.462778

What causes the AttributeError module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘now’?

As we know, to get the current time value, when declared, the datetime object containing the current date and time will be stored in the now variable. When you get the error “AttributeError: module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘now'”, most of the time it happens because you have declared the now() function directly on the datetime module or you have duplicated variable names with module name.

For example:

import datetime 

print(type(datetime))
kt = datetime.datetime.now()
print(kt)

error massage:

<class 'module'>
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "D:\programming\python\datetime.py", line 1, in <module>
 import datetime
 File "D:\programming\python\datetime.py", line 4, in <module>
 kt = datetime.datetime.now()
 AttributeError: module 'datetime' has no attribute 'now'

How to fix it?

If you are in this situation, luckily there are quite a few ways you can handle it. Here are some of the solutions we offer you, take a look and choose the one that’s suitable for you.

Method 1: Separate the datetime class from the datetime module

If you encounter an error because you have declared the same class name as the module name, the simple way is to clearly distinguish the class and module and separate them. Here is the sample handling:

from datetime import datetime
print(datetime.now())

output

2022-07-17 23:04:31.280852

Method 2: Assign a name 

For this way, to avoid the case that you declare the same class name as the module name, you can completely handle it by assigning it with a different name, for example like below:

from datetime import datetime as kt

#  alias datetime class to kt
print(kt.now())

output

2022-07-17 23:04:31.280852

Method 3: Declare the now() function on the datetime class instead

In this way, you will declare the program as follows:

import datetime
print(datetime.datetime.now())

output

2022-07-17 23:04:31.280852

Method 4: Use the dir() function

The dir() function returns a list of the valid properties of the object. In this case we will apply the following:

import datetime
"""
[
  'MAXYEAR', 'MINYEAR', '__all__', '__builtins__', '__cached__',
 '__doc__', '__file__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__',
 '__spec__', 'date', 'datetime', 'datetime_CAPI', 'sys', 'time',
 'timedelta', 'timezone', 'tzinfo'
]
"""
print(dir(datetime))

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed our article about discovering the answer for the problem “AttributeError module ‘datetime’ has no attribute ‘now’”. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to leave a comment. We are always excited when our posts can provide useful information!