Get current date time with offset hours (time zone) using python without dependency¶

How to get the current date/time string with different timezones like GMT-06:00 and GMT+02:00?

Python Code¶

from datetime import datetime, timedelta


def get_now_with_offset(offset_hours: int):
    # turn offset hours to timedelta object
    offset_td = timedelta(hours=offset_hours)
    # utcnow is the GMT time with no offset hours
    now = datetime.utcnow()
    return (now + offset_td).strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')


if __name__ == "__main__":
    # GMT+02:00
    print(get_now_with_offset(2))
    # GMT-06:00
    print(get_now_with_offset(-6))

Output example:

2022-06-17 14:00:59
2022-06-17 06:00:59

How to extract offset hours from GMT prefixed timezone like GMT+02:00¶

def get_offset_hours(time_zone: str = 'GMT+02:00') -> int:
    offset_hours = int(time_zone.replace("GMT", "").split(":")[0])
    assert -12 <= offset_hours <= 12
    return offset_hours