{"id":6579,"date":"2020-06-28T08:37:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T08:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/?p=6579"},"modified":"2023-02-16T19:57:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T19:57:03","slug":"python-timedelta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/python-modules\/python-timedelta","title":{"rendered":"How to Work with Python TimeDelta?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello everyone! In today’s article, we’ll be taking a look at using the Python timedelta object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This object is really useful if you want to represent an instance of time, as an object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As opposed to an integer \/ float number, this is an actual object. The advantage is that it gives us more flexibility for integrating with our application!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s look at how we can use this, using some simple examples!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Python timedelta object<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This class is available in the datetime<\/code> module, which is a part of the standard library.<\/p>\n\n\n

\nfrom datetime import timedelta\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
We can create a timedelta object using the constructor for it’s class.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nfrom datetime import timedelta\n\ntimedelta_object = timedelta(days=0, seconds=0, microseconds=0, milliseconds=0, minutes=0, hours=0, weeks=0)\nprint(timedelta_object)\n\n# Same as above (Everything set to 0)\nzero_obj = timedelta()\nprint(zero_obj)\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Output<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\n0:00:00\n0:00:00\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Notice that we can customize the parameters to make our own datetime object. If you don’t set the argument value, it is taken as 0 by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arguments may be integers or floats and may be positive or negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Manipulating existing Python timedelta objects<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Other than creating our own timedelta objects, we can also manipulate existing timedelta objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can add, subtract, or divide two timedelta objects using basic operators<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n
\na = timedelta(hours=4, seconds=100)\nprint(a)\nb = timedelta(hours=2, seconds=50)\nprint(b)\nprint("Output:")\nprint(a + b, a - b, a \/ b, sep='\\n')\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Output<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\n4:01:40\n2:00:50\nOutput:\n6:02:30\n2:00:50\n2.0\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
As you can see, we can directly manipulate these objects using simple operations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Getting the current datetime object<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Now, for most real life programs, we would want to use the current time and store it as a datetime object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can use datetime.now()<\/a> function to display the current time as a datetime object!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Note that you have to import this from the module name separately!<\/p>\n\n\n
\nfrom datetime import datetime\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Let’s now take an example.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nfrom datetime import datetime\n\ncurrent_datetime = datetime.now()\nprint(current_datetime)\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Output<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\ndatetime.datetime(2020, 6, 27, 22, 45, 54, 267673)\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
The output seems to match! It says that the current time is June 27 2020, 22:45:54 in my local timezone (IST).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, we can also use basic operators to get the past or future time!<\/p>\n\n\n
\nfrom datetime import datetime, timedelta\n\ncurrent_datetime = datetime.now()\n\n# future dates\none_year_future_date = current_datetime + timedelta(days=365)\n\nprint('Current Date:', current_datetime)\nprint('One year from now Date:', one_year_future_date)\n\n# past dates\nthree_days_before_date = current_datetime - timedelta(days=3)\nprint('Three days before Date:', three_days_before_date)\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Output<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\nCurrent Date: 2020-06-27 22:45:54.267673\nOne year from now Date: 2021-06-27 22:45:54.267673\nThree days before Date: 2020-06-24 22:45:54.267673\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Using Python timedelta with date and time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We can also use the Python timedelta class with a date object, using addition and subtraction.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nfrom datetime import datetime, timedelta\n\ncurrent_datetime = datetime.now()\n\ndt = current_datetime.date()\nprint('Current Date:', dt)\ndt_tomorrow = dt + timedelta(days=1)\nprint('Tomorrow Date:', dt_tomorrow)\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Output<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\nCurrent Date: 2020-06-27\nTomorrow Date: 2020-06-28\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
This gives us more flexibility when trying to store\/display timestamps. If you want a minimally formatted timestamp, using datetime_object.date()<\/code> is a good choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Python timedelta total seconds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We can display the total number of seconds for any timedelta object using:
timedelta_object.total_seconds()<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nfrom datetime import timedelta\n\nprint('Seconds in an year:', timedelta(days=365).total_seconds())\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Output<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\nOutput: Seconds in an year: 31536000.0\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Using datetime objects for a specific timezone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You may want to use a different timezone when you’re storing\/displaying datetime objects. Python gives us a handy way to do this, using the pytz<\/code> module (Python Timezones).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can install pytz<\/code> using pip<\/code>, if you haven’t done so already.<\/p>\n\n\n
\npip install pytz\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Now, we can use pytz.timezone(TIMEZONE)<\/code> to choose our timezone, and pass it to our timedelta object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s a simple example which prints the same time with different timezones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Handy Tip<\/strong>: You can list the common timezones using pytz.common_timezones<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n
\nfrom datetime import datetime\nfrom pytz import timezone, common_timezones\n\ndatetime_object = datetime.now(timezone('Asia\/Kolkata'))\nprint("Current IST:", datetime_object)\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Output<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\nCurrent IST: 2020-06-27 23:27:49.003020+05:30\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n
\nfrom datetime import datetime\nfrom pytz import timezone, common_timezones\nimport random\n\nfor _ in range(4):\n    zone = random.choice(common_timezones)\n    print(f"Using TimeZone: {zone}")\n    datetime_object = datetime.now(timezone(zone))\n    print(datetime_object)\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Output<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\nUsing TimeZone: America\/St_Lucia\n2020-06-27 13:57:04.804959-04:00\nUsing TimeZone: Asia\/Muscat\n2020-06-27 21:57:04.814959+04:00\nUsing TimeZone: Asia\/Urumqi\n2020-06-27 23:57:04.825990+06:00\nUsing TimeZone: Asia\/Seoul\n2020-06-28 02:57:04.836994+09:00\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Indeed, we were able to get the current time in different timezones!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In this article, we learned how we could use the timedelta object to represent time as a Python object!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
  • JournalDev article on Python timedelta<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    Hello everyone! In today’s article, we’ll be taking a look at using the Python timedelta object. This object is really useful if you want to represent an instance of time, as an object. As opposed to an integer \/ float number, this is an actual object. The advantage is that it gives us more flexibility […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-python-modules"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askpython.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}