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

Jan Mysicka
Jan Mysicka
3,932 Points
Posted by Jan Mysicka
Jan Mysicka
3,932 Points

time_machine doesn't return the right datetime

Please help me understand why the below code doesn't produce the right result. It works fine in workspaces when iterating through all possible time_increments.

Thanks

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_increment, amount):
  if time_increment == 'years':
    return(starter + datetime.timedelta(days=amount*365))
  elif time_increment == 'days':
    return(starter + datetime.timedelta(days=amount))
  elif time_increment == 'hours':
    return(starter + datetime.timedelta(hours=amount))
  elif time_increment == 'minutes':
    return(starter + datetime.timedelta(minutes=amount))

1 Answer

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

You have your parameters reversed: See example in the code comments

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(amount, time_increment):
  if time_increment == 'years':
    return(starter + datetime.timedelta(days=amount*365))
  elif time_increment == 'days':
    return(starter + datetime.timedelta(days=amount))
  elif time_increment == 'hours':
    return(starter + datetime.timedelta(hours=amount))
  elif time_increment == 'minutes':
    return(starter + datetime.timedelta(minutes=amount))