Datetime 'has no attribute now'

Question

I'm trying to write a simple program to print the current date with Python 3.4. In the shell, I can import datetime, and use now() but when I write a script with a class it fails and gives this error:

"AttributeError: module object has no attribute now".

Can anyone help explain the problem? This is my code:

import datetime

class Date:
    def __init__(self, filename):
        self.writeToFile(filename)

    def date(self):
        now = datetime.datetime.now()
        return now

    def writeToFile(self, filename):
        date = self.date()

        file = open(filename, 'w')
        file.write(date)
        for i in range(20):             # simply test for writting in file
            file.write(str(i)+'\t')
        file.close()
        return file

d = Date('datetime.txt')

What a stupid mistake :( I am really sorry for wasting your time, everybody's time a didnt realise that, this could be a problem..Thanks one more :) — MartinT_25, Jul 07 '15 at 12:04
Don't worry, we've all fallen into this trap before :) Remember that you should also be mindful of not using variable names like `list` that shadow the built-in names. These mistakes can lead to very puzzling errors... — Tim Pietzcker, Jul 07 '15 at 12:53
I think everyone gets caught by this once and then passes on the knowledge. — SuperBiasedMan, Jul 07 '15 at 13:46
@MartinT_25: [you are not alone](http://stackoverflow.com/q/25299371/4279) — jfs, Jul 07 '15 at 20:29

score 14 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 20 '20 at 10:15

14

import datetime
datetime.datetime.now()

answered Sep 20 '20 at 10:15

Ibrahim Tayseer

518
4
10

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 07 '15 at 12:48

Make sure you are importing the intended datetime module, and it is not being overridden by local files with same name. you can check it with:

import datetime
print(datetime.__file__)

and check the output if it is pointing to the correct directory you want.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 15 '21 at 12:52

1

I had this error too and all I did was

Import datetime
from datetime import datetime

# then u can declare ur variable let's say something like
today = datetime.datetime.now()
#u can add what ever u want 
#the point is make sure u do the datetime.datetime.now()
print(today)

edited Oct 15 '21 at 12:52

Stefano Sansone

2,377
7
20
39

answered Oct 15 '21 at 10:04

Switnex XTra

11
3

Datetime 'has no attribute now'

3 Answers3