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Python Dates and Times in Python (2014) Dates and Times Timedelta Minute

Posted by Brad Pettigrew
Brad Pettigrew
1,834 Points

Getting total minutes as a timedelta

I'm stuck on this exercise. I think the problem is converting the total minutes in each datetime to a timedelta, subtracting that number, and then converting it back to minutes.

How would I do this?

minutes.py 
import datetime

def minutes(dt1,dt2):
  diff = dt2.minute - dt1.minute
  return round(diff)

2 Answers

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 Points

In your code, you are subtracting the integer minute values to get another integer. This does not take into account if the datetimes cross the hour boundary. It would be better to subtract the two datetime objects directly to yield a timedelta object. You can then use the timedelta method total_seconds() and covert back to minutes.

Jonathan Shull
PLUS
Jonathan Shull
Courses Plus Student 12,739 Points
Jonathan Shull
Jonathan Shull
Courses Plus Student 12,739 Points

I struggled with this one some as well. Using total_seconds(), as Chris Freeman states above, was the key for me.

A little more detail into how I solved the problem, each step adds on to the previous:

First I subtracted the the function's arguments to create a timedelta:

date_time_newer - date_time_older

Next I converted the timedelta (in the form 06:45) to seconds using total_seconds():

(date_time_newer-date_time_older).total_seconds()

Then I divided everything by 60 and rounded it to get total minutes:

round((date_time_newer-date_time_older).total_seconds()/60)

In the end I ended up with:

import datetime


def minutes(date_time_older, date_time_newer):
  date_time_difference = round((date_time_newer-date_time_older).total_seconds()/60)
  return date_time_difference
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 Points
Chris Freeman
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,441 Points

Jonathan, your original answer with the details was fine. I was going to upvote for the details you added. Feel free to edit your answer and add that back in if you still have it.