# Basic Question

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/basic-question/4369>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [April 27, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/basic-question/4369 "2012-04-27T17:13:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mcarangelo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@mcarangelo](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mcarangelo)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/basic-question/4369/1 "2012-04-27T17:13:00Z")

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New to Ignition, trying to get a handle on Scripting. First thing I tried in the interactive script tester:

import datetime  
system.db.dateFormat(now(), “MMM d, h:mm a”)

says now is not defined…What am I missing?

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**Author:** ![Travis.Cox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Travis.Cox](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Travis.Cox)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/basic-question/4369/2 "2012-04-27T18:19:13Z")

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The function now() only exists in expression binding. You have to do this:`from java.util import Date
print system.db.dateFormat(Date(), "MMM d, h:mm a")`

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**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/basic-question/4369/3 "2012-04-27T18:20:24Z")

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A couple things.

First, to access that now() function, you would use:

```auto
import datetime
datetime.datetime.now()
```

Second, system.db.dateFormat() requires a java.util.Date object, not a Python datetime object. You can format the datetime object using [docs.python.org/library/datetime … e.strftime](http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html#datetime.date.strftime)

- OR -

Go with what Travis did 🙂

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**Author:** ![JordanCClark](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jordancclark/32/83362_2.png) [@JordanCClark](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/JordanCClark)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/basic-question/4369/4 "2012-04-27T18:22:22Z")

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Hi there!

Now that I’ve used it for a while, I tend to use the java.util.calendar object if I need a now() kind of function in a script:

`from java.util import Calendar
x=Calendar.getInstance()
print x.time
print system.db.dateFormat(x.time, "MMM d, h:mm a")`

Or go with what Travis did… 😆

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mcarangelo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@mcarangelo](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mcarangelo)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/basic-question/4369/5 "2012-04-27T18:31:57Z")

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That information is helpful. Thank you. The scripting examples in the Ignition help need some more detail. Thanks again