Python: Converting from `datetime.datetime` to `time.time`

Ram Rachum picture Ram Rachum · Nov 5, 2011 · Viewed 48.9k times · Source

In Python, how do I convert a datetime.datetime into the kind of float that I would get from the time.time function?

Answer

Raymond Hettinger picture Raymond Hettinger · Nov 5, 2011

It's not hard to use the time tuple method and still retain the microseconds:

>>> t = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> t
datetime.datetime(2011, 11, 5, 11, 26, 15, 37496)

>>> time.mktime(t.timetuple()) + t.microsecond / 1E6
1320517575.037496