Python Get the Day of the Week

In this Python tutorial, I will show you exactly how to get the day of the week of a given date. For example, you want to find out the day’s name or number from the datetime.

In this datetime guide, I’ll cover:

• weekday() method to get the day of the week as a number, where Monday is 0 and Sunday is 6.
• isoweekday() method to get the weekday of a given date as an integer, where Monday is 1 and Sunday is 7.
• strftime() method to get the name of the day from the date. Like Monday, Tuesday.
• How to use the calendar module to get the name of the day from datetime.
• Pandas Timestamp() method to get the number and name of the day.

How to Get the day of the week from datetime in Python

Example: Get the day of a week from Datetime

from datetime import datetime

# get current datetime
dt = datetime.now()
print('Datetime is:', dt)

# get day of week as an integer
x = dt.weekday()
print('Day of a week is:', x)

Output:

Datetime is: 2022-04-13 11:21:18.052308
Day of a week is: 2

The output is 2, equivalent to Wednesday as Monday is 0.

isoweekday() to get a weekday of a given date in Python

The weekday() method we used above returns the day of the week as an integer, where Monday is 0 and Sunday is 6.

Use the isoweekday() method to get the day of the week as an integer, where Monday is 1 and Sunday is 7. i.e., To start from the weekday number from 1, we can use isoweekday() in place of weekday().

Example:

from datetime import datetime

# get current datetime
dt = datetime.now()
print('Datetime is:', dt)
print('Weekday is:', dt.isoweekday())

Output:

Datetime is: 2022-05-02 13:24:30.636135
Weekday is: 1

The output is 1, which is equivalent to Monday as Monday is 1.

Get a weekday where Sunday is 0

from datetime import datetime

# get current date
d = datetime.now().date()
# get weekday
print(d.strftime('%w'))

Date: 2022-05-02
1

Get the Weekday Name of a Date using strftime() method

In the above examples, we saw how to get the weekday of a date as an integer. In this section, let’s see how to get the day name of a given date ( such as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) from a datetime object in Python.

For example, datetime(2022, 5, 10, 8, 42, 10) should return me “Tuesday”.

Use the strftime() method of a datetime module to get the day’s name in English in Python. It uses some standard directives to represent a datetime in a string format. The %A directive returns the full name of the weekday. Like, Monday, Tuesday.

Example:

from datetime import datetime

# get current datetime
dt = datetime.now()
print('Datetime is:', dt)

# get weekday name
print('day Name:', dt.strftime('%A'))

Output:

Datetime is: 2022-05-02 13:40:57.060953
day Name: Monday

Get the Weekday Name from date using Calendar Module

Python calendar module allows you to output calendars like the Unix cal program and provides additional useful functions related to the calendar.

The calendar.day_name method is used to get the name of the day from the date. This method contains an array that represents the days of the week in the current locale. Here, Monday is placed at index 0th index.

Example:

import calendar
from datetime import date

# get today's date
d = date.today()
print('Date is:', d)

# get day name in english
x = calendar.day_name[d.weekday()]
print('Weekday name is:', x)

Output:

Date is: 2022-05-02
Weekday name is: Monday

Check if a date is a weekday or weekend

We can use the weekday() method of a datetime.date object to determine if the given date is a weekday or weekend.

Note: The weekday() method returns the day of the week as an integer, where Monday is 0 and Sunday is 6. For example, the date(2022, 05, 02) is a Monday. So its weekday number is 0.

Example:

import datetime

# given date
x_date = datetime.date(2022, 4, 22)
no = x_date.weekday()

if no < 5:
    print("Date is Weekday")
else:  # 5 Sat, 6 Sun
    print("Date is Weekend")

Output:

Date is Weekday

Pandas Timestamp Method to Get the Name of the Day in Python

If you are working with a pandas series or dataframe, then the timestamp() method is helpful to get the day number and name.

• First, pass the date in YYYY-MM-DD format as its parameter.
• Next, use the dayofweek() and day_name() method to get the weekday number and name.

Example:

import pandas as pd

d = pd.Timestamp('2022-05-02')
print(d.dayofweek, d.day_name())

Output:

0 Monday

Summary

In this tutorial, we learned how to get the Name of the day in English and the day of the week as an integer number in Python.

• Use the weekday() method to get the day of the week as an integer. In this method, Monday is 0 and Sunday is 6
• If you want to start from 1, use the isoweekday() method. It returns the day of the week as an integer, where Monday is 1 and Sunday is 7.
• Use the strftime() method or calendar module to get the name of the day in English. Like Monday, Tuesday.
• Use Pandas Timestamp() method to get the number and name of the day.

Example:

from datetime import datetime
import calendar

# get current datetime
dt = datetime.now()
print('Datetime is:', dt)

# weekday (Monday =0 Sunday=6)
print('Weekday Number:', dt.weekday())

# isoweekday(Monday =1 Sunday=6)
print('ISO Weekday Number:', dt.isoweekday())

# get weekday name
print('Weekday Name:', dt.strftime('%A'))

# get day name
x = calendar.day_name[dt.weekday()]
print('Weekday name is:', x)