Python: timezone.localize() not working

Question

I am having some issues getting timezone.localize() to work correctly. My goal is to grab today\'s date and convert it from CST to EST. Then finally format the

Answer 1

Use cst.localize to make a naive datetime into a timezone-aware datetime.

Then use astimezone to convert a timezone-aware datetime to another timezone.

import pytz
import datetime

est = pytz.timezone('US/Eastern')
cst = pytz.timezone('US/Central')
curtime = cst.localize(datetime.datetime.now())
curtime = curtime.astimezone(est)

Answer 2

.localize() takes a naive datetime object and interprets it as if it is in that timezone. It does not move the time to another timezone. A naive datetime object has no timezone information to be able to make that move possible.

You want to interpret now() in your local timezone instead, then use .astimezone() to interpret the datetime in another timezone:

est = timezone('US/Eastern')
cst = timezone('US/Central')
curtime = cst.localize(datetime.datetime.now())
est_curtime = curtime.astimezone(est).strftime("%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Z %Y"))

def run(self):
    print "%s says Hello World at time: %s" % (self.getName(), est_curtime)