A quick command line utility for printing out dates formatted as you'd like them. I use this utility to quickly print out JSON formatted strings, or strings for use in code documentation.

clock.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys
from datetime import datetime
from dateutil.tz import tzlocal

class Clock(object):
    
    FORMATS = {
        "code":"%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y %z",
        "json":"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ",
        "cute":"%b %d, %Y", 
    }

    @classmethod
    def local_now(self):
        return datetime.now(tzlocal())

    @classmethod
    def utc_now(self):
        return datetime.utcnow()

    def __init__(self, formats={}):
        self.formats = self.FORMATS
        self.formats.update(formats)
     
    def _local_format(self, fmt):
        return Clock.local_now().strftime(fmt)

    def _utc_format(self, fmt):
        return Clock.utc_now().strftime(fmt)

    def get_stamp(self, name):
        name  = name.strip("-")
        mname = name + "_stamp"

        # Try to find method table first
        if hasattr(self, mname):
            method = getattr(self, mname)
            return method()

        # Try to use the format string with local timezone
        if name in self.formats:
            return self._local_format(self.formats[name])

        return None

    def print_stamp(self, name):
            stamp = self.get_stamp(name)
            if stamp:
                print stamp
            else:
                print "No stamp format for name %s" % name

    def help_stamp(self):

        output = ["Prints a timestamp represented with a format.",
                  "",
                  "The formats are stored in a lookup table with names, that",
                  "you can pass to the function. For instance, if you pass the",
                  "following arguments, you'll get the following results:",
                  ""]

        for name in ('--code', '--json'):
            output.append("\t%s: %s" % (name, self.get_stamp(name)))
    
        output.append("")
        output.append("The current formats are:")
        output.append("")

        for item in self.formats.items():
            output.append("\t%s: \"%s\"" % item)
        output.append("")

        output.append("Note that the timezone will default to the system timezone unless")
        output.append("The format requires a UTC or other timezone (like JSON)")
        output.append("")

        return "\n".join(output)

    def json_stamp(self):
        return self._utc_format(self.formats['json'])


if __name__ == "__main__":

    args  = sys.argv[1:]
    clock = Clock()
    for arg in args:
        clock.print_stamp(arg)

A quick command line utility for printing out dates formatted as you'd like them. I use this utility to quickly print out JSON formatted strings, or strings for use in code documentation. Simply add your formats as necessary then add clock.py to your path. You can then call it as follows:

$ clock.py --json 
2013-07-02T19:00:28.439402Z
$ clock.py --code
Tue Jul 02 15:00:47 2013 -0400

Adding your own formats will automatically add the option.