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Python Dates and Times in Python (2014) Let's Build a Timed Quiz App Harder Time Machine

James Barber
James Barber
3,502 Points
Posted by James Barber
James Barber
3,502 Points

How to properly combine str and int variables to construct a valid argument for timedelta()

How do I combine str and int variables to construct a valid argument for timedelta() in the following line of code? timedelta = datetime.timedelta(time_units + "=" + time_int)

time_machine.py 
import datetime

starter = datetime.datetime(2015, 10, 21, 16, 29)

# Remember, you can't set "years" on a timedelta!
# Consider a year to be 365 days.

## Example
# time_machine(5, "minutes") => datetime(2015, 10, 21, 16, 34)
def time_machine(time_int, time_units):
  if time_units == "years":
    time_int *= 365
    time_units = "days"

  timedelta = datetime.timedelta(time_units + "=" + int(time_int))
  return starter + timedelta

1 Answer

akak
akak
29,445 Points
akak
akak
29,445 Points

I wrote almost exact same code as you today. After some time I gave up and looked up forum for the answer. The only one I found was indicating that you need to make timedelta for every case (hours, minutes etc.). You can't provide variable time_units instead of word. So if, elif, elif and so on. 

def time_machine(integer, string1):
  if string1 == 'hours':
      return starter + datetime.timedelta(hours=integer)
  elif string1 == 'days':
      return starter + datetime.timedelta(days=integer)
James Barber
James Barber
3,502 Points
James Barber
James Barber
3,502 Points

Thanks akak, that was the work-around I came up with too (just so I could pass the quiz...). It felt overly-difficult though, so I'd be very curious if anyone knows a cleaner way to implement this code.