This error occurs when you try to use the datetime module without importing it first. You can solve this error by importing the module. For example,

import datetime print(datetime.date.today())

This tutorial will go through how to solve the error with code examples.

Table of Contents

NameError: name ‘datetime’ is not defined

Python raises the NameError when it cannot recognise a name in our program. In other words, the name we are trying to use is not defined in the local or global scope. A name can be related to a built-in function, module, or something we define in our programs, like a variable or a function.

The error typically arises when:

We misspell a name
We do not define a variable or function
We do not import a module

In this tutorial, the source of the error NameError: name ‘datetime’ is not defined is usually due to not importing the module. Let’s look at an example.

Example

Solution #1: Import datetime

We can import the module by putting an import statement at the top of the program. Let’s look at the updated code:

import datetime print(datetime.date.today())

Let’s run the code to get today’s date:

2022-06-13

Solution #2: Use from keyword

We can also use the from keyword to import a specific variable, class or function from a module. In this case, we want to import the date class from the datetime module.

Using the from keyword means we do not have to specify the datetime module in the rest of the program, we only need the date class.

Let’s look at the updated code:

from datetime import date print(date.today())

Let’s run the code to get today’s date:

2022-06-13

The from keyword is also useful for importing multiple classes, functions or variables from a module. Let’s look at an example of importing the datetime and timedelta classes from the datetime module.

from datetime import datetime, timedelta # Current datetime now = datetime.now() # printing initial_date print (‘initial datetime:’, now) # Datetime two years before now past = now – timedelta(days = 730) print(‘date two years from initial datetime: ‘, past)

In the above code, we use the now() method from the datetime class to create a datetime object that represents the current date and time. Then, we use timedelta to find the date and time two years before the current date and time. Let’s run the code to see the result:

initial datetime: 2022-06-13 23:28:49.530895 date two years from initial datetime: 2020-06-13 23:28:49.530895

Summary

Congratulations on reading to the end of this tutorial!

For further reading on NameErrors, go to the articles:

How to Solve Python NameError: name ‘os’ is not defined
How to Solve Python NameError: name ‘json’ is not defined
How to Solve Python NameError: name ‘time’ is not defined

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Have fun and happy researching!