NameError: name 'UTC' is not defined

Question

The output of datetime.datetime.now() outputs in my native timezone of UTC-8. I'd like to convert that to an appropriate timestamp with a tzinfo of UTC.

from datetime import datetime, tzinfo
x = datetime.now()
x = x.replace(tzinfo=UTC)

^ outputs NameError: name 'UTC' is not defined

x.replace(tzinfo=<UTC>) outputs SyntaxError: invalid syntax

x.replace(tzinfo='UTC') outputs TypeError: tzinfo argument must be None or of a tzinfo subclass, not type 'str'

What is the correct syntax to use to accomplish my example?

Python's standard libraries don't include any tzinfo classes, including UTC. The documentation does include instructions for creating one though. — Mark Ransom, Jul 05 '12 at 23:00

Mark Ransom · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-20T12:48:59.320

11

You'll need to use an additional library such as pytz. Python's datetime module doesn't include any tzinfo classes, including UTC, and certainly not your local timezone.

Edit: as of Python 3.2 the datetime module includes a timezone object with a utc member. The canonical way of getting the current UTC time is now:

from datetime import datetime, timezone
x = datetime.now(timezone.utc)

You'll still need another library such as pytz for other timezones. Edit: Python 3.9 now includes the zoneinfo module so there's no need to install additional packages.

edited Apr 20 '22 at 12:48

answered Jul 05 '12 at 23:02

Mark Ransom

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Thanks! For those curious, ended up using `x.replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc) + timedelta(hours=8)` – Randall Ma Jul 05 '12 at 23:14

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

If all you're looking for is the time now in UTC, datetime has a builtin for that:

x = datetime.utcnow()

Unfortunately it doesn't include any tzinfo, but it does give you the UTC time.

Alternatively if you do need the tzinfo you can do this:

from datetime import datetime
import pytz
x = datetime.now(tz=pytz.timezone('UTC'))

You may also be interested in a list of the timezones: Python - Pytz - List of Timezones?

NameError: name 'UTC' is not defined

2 Answers2