Print current date/time in email

I would like to include the current time of an email in the email text. Is there an indigo function I could use?
Since I was unable to find one, I created a variable and have written a python script to assign the date/tiime to the indigo variable.
It's not working:

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import datetime;
currentTime = indigo.variables[524935544].getValue(int)   #current time - indigo variable
ct = datetime.datetime.now() #ct - python variable
indigo.variable.updateValue(524935544, ct)


The script returns the text "now".
Can I do this inside indigo? If not, is there a fix to the script above?
Thank you,
Bob

[jay (support)]

Indigo variable values are always strings, so just convert the datetime object into a string when storing it:

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import datetime
currentTime = indigo.variables[524935544].getValue(int)   #current time - indigo variable
ct = datetime.datetime.now() #ct - python variable
indigo.variable.updateValue(524935544, str(ct))

I pasted your reply with the 'str' added, and still get the same result, "now".

At the very least, you need to remove that semi-colon on the first line. Python doesn't use semi-colons.

And the second line isn't being used at all. Delete it.

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import datetime
ct = datetime.datetime.now() #ct - python variable
indigo.variable.updateValue(524935544, str(ct))

still returns 'now'

Are you sure you have the right identifier for the variable? Did you try clearing it out and then running the script?

Because the rest of the code works correctly:

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Python 2.7.16 (default, Aug 30 2021, 14:43:11)
[GCC Apple LLVM 12.0.5 (clang-1205.0.19.59.6) [+internal-os, ptrauth-isa=deploy on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import datetime
>>> ct = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> print ct
2021-10-04 18:35:08.049862


[jay (support)]

Works for me (substituted a variable ID from my variables):

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>>> import datetime
>>> ct = datetime.datetime.now() #ct - python variable
>>> indigo.variable.updateValue(534204190, str(ct))
>>> print(indigo.variables[534204190].value)
2021-10-04 17:37:48.647020

works for me too.

works for me too.

What works? Or still doesn't work?

I thought I had sent an explanatory reply - I must have inadvertently deleted it .
Your suggestion to check the variable (it is OK) prompted me to check the basics, What I found was that I had created a second version of the file with BBE and I was editing one and running the other. No surprise - the edits weren't effective.
As usual, thank you for your patience and assistance.
Bob

I am able to use the current time in email, but the precision is unnecessary.
I have attempted to truncate the string with the additional code at line 3 where I want to display the first 19 characters in the string:

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import datetime
ct = datetime.datetime.now() #ct - python variable
HMS = ct[0:19]
indigo.variable.updateValue(524935544, str(HMS))

Indigo does not like my 'improvement':

Script Error currentTime.py: 'datetime.datetime' object has no attribute '__getitem__'
Script Error Exception Traceback (most recent call shown last):

currentTime.py, line 3, at top level
TypeError: 'datetime.datetime' object has no attribute '__getitem__'

I also tried using "ct" in both lines 3 & 4.

'ct' is a datetime object, not a string. You need to convert it to a string before you truncate.

Or you could use the datatime formating options to get exactly the string you want from the ct object, and not do the truncation hack.

This works - is there a better way? - cleaned up?

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import datetime
ct = datetime.datetime.now() #ct - python object
s1 = str(ct) #converts ct to string
HMS = s1[5:16] #drops year, and sets precision to minutes ([:19] for seconds)
indigo.variable.updateValue(524935544, str(HMS))

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import datetime
HMS = str(datetime.datetime.now())[5:16] #drops year, and sets precision to minutes ([:19] for seconds)
indigo.variable.updateValue(524935544, HMS)