Comparing a time delta in python

Alpesh Patel picture Alpesh Patel · Apr 7, 2010 · Viewed 99.3k times · Source

I have a variable which is <type 'datetime.timedelta'> and I would like to compare it against certain values.

Lets say d produces this datetime.timedelta value 0:00:01.782000

I would like to compare it like this:

#if d is greater than 1 minute 
if d>1:00:
  print "elapsed time is greater than 1 minute"

I have tried converting datetime.timedelta.strptime() but that does seem to work. Is there an easier way to compare this value?

Answer

Mark Rushakoff picture Mark Rushakoff · Apr 7, 2010

You'll have to create a new timedelta with the specified amount of time:

d > timedelta(minutes=1)

Or this slightly more complete script will help elaborate:

import datetime
from time import sleep

start = datetime.datetime.now()
sleep(3)
stop = datetime.datetime.now()

elapsed = stop - start

if elapsed > datetime.timedelta(minutes=1):
    print "Slept for > 1 minute"

if elapsed > datetime.timedelta(seconds=1):
    print "Slept for > 1 second"

Output:

Slept for > 1 second