How do I find the time difference between two datetime objects in python?

Hobhouse picture Hobhouse · Aug 28, 2009 · Viewed 569.9k times · Source

How do I tell the time difference in minutes between two datetime objects?

Answer

SilentGhost picture SilentGhost · Aug 28, 2009
>>> import datetime
>>> first_time = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> later_time = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> difference = later_time - first_time
>>> seconds_in_day = 24 * 60 * 60
datetime.timedelta(0, 8, 562000)
>>> divmod(difference.days * seconds_in_day + difference.seconds, 60)
(0, 8)      # 0 minutes, 8 seconds

Subtracting the later time from the first time difference = later_time - first_time creates a datetime object that only holds the difference. In the example above it is 0 minutes, 8 seconds and 562000 microseconds.