Convert a timedelta to days, hours and minutes

python timedelta
Oli picture Oli · Jan 22, 2010 · Viewed 372.2k times · Source

I've got a timedelta. I want the days, hours and minutes from that - either as a tuple or a dictionary... I'm not fussed.

I must have done this a dozen times in a dozen languages over the years but Python usually has a simple answer to everything so I thought I'd ask here before busting out some nauseatingly simple (yet verbose) mathematics.

Mr Fooz raises a good point.

I'm dealing with "listings" (a bit like ebay listings) where each one has a duration. I'm trying to find the time left by doing when_added + duration - now

Am I right in saying that wouldn't account for DST? If not, what's the simplest way to add/subtract an hour?

Answer

Alex Martelli picture Alex Martelli · Jan 22, 2010

If you have a datetime.timedelta value td, td.days already gives you the "days" you want. timedelta values keep fraction-of-day as seconds (not directly hours or minutes) so you'll indeed have to perform "nauseatingly simple mathematics", e.g.:

def days_hours_minutes(td):
    return td.days, td.seconds//3600, (td.seconds//60)%60

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