How to make a timezone aware datetime object in Python?

How to make a timezone aware datetime object in Python?

In general, to make a naive datetime timezone-aware, use the localize method:

import datetime
import pytz

unaware = datetime.datetime(2011, 8, 15, 8, 15, 12, 0)
aware = datetime.datetime(2011, 8, 15, 8, 15, 12, 0, pytz.UTC)

now_aware = pytz.utc.localize(unaware)
assert aware == now_aware

For the UTC timezone, it is not really necessary to use localize since there is no daylight savings time calculation to handle:

now_aware = unaware.replace(tzinfo=pytz.UTC)

works. (.replace returns a new datetime; it does not modify unaware.)

All of these examples use an external module, but you can achieve the same result using just the datetime module, as also presented in this SO answer:

from datetime import datetime, timezone

dt = datetime.now()
dt = dt.replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc)

print(dt.isoformat())
# 2017-01-12T22:11:31+00:00

Fewer dependencies and no pytz issues.

NOTE: If you wish to use this with python3 and python2, you can use this as well for the timezone import (hardcoded for UTC):

try:
    from datetime import timezone
    utc = timezone.utc
except ImportError:
    #Hi there python2 user
    class UTC(tzinfo):
        def utcoffset(self, dt):
            return timedelta(0)
        def tzname(self, dt):
            return UTC
        def dst(self, dt):
            return timedelta(0)
    utc = UTC()

How to make a timezone aware datetime object in Python?

I wrote this Python 2 script in 2011, but never checked if it works on Python 3.

I had moved from dt_aware to dt_unaware:

dt_unaware = dt_aware.replace(tzinfo=None)

and dt_unware to dt_aware:

from pytz import timezone
localtz = timezone(Europe/Lisbon)
dt_aware = localtz.localize(dt_unware)