Python : Comparing two times, and returning in minutes

Question

I have a method which takes two strings (times) e.g. 15:01 The method should take the times and do time1-time2 and return to me a new time in minutes. eg. 15:53 - 15:59 should give me 6 minutes however i'm stuck.

This is my code:

import datetime 
class timeCalc(object):
    def timeDiff(self,time1,time2):
        timeA = datetime.datetime.strptime(time1, "%H:%M")
        timeB = datetime.datetime.strptime(time2, "%H:%M")
        newTime = timeA - timeB

Solution

You function needs to return newTime:

import datetime

def timeDiff(time1,time2):
    timeA = datetime.datetime.strptime(time1, "%H:%M")
    timeB = datetime.datetime.strptime(time2, "%H:%M")
    newTime = timeA - timeB
    return newTime.seconds/60   

print timeDiff('15:59','15:53'), 'minutes'

>>> 6 minutes

Notes:

I think you want newTime = timeB - timeA otherwise you have to pass the times in backwards like I did.

Comments

[Daniel Roseman]

Why are you stuck? What does newTime give you? What happens when you explore the methods available on that object? (And why are you defining a class here - why isn't timeDiff just a function?)

[Muhammed Bhikha]

it gives me the result in a very weird format. I want the difference in minutes, then when I go to print in the console, it throws up an error

[olofom]

To get the answer in minutes you should return newTime.seconds/60 instead.

[Chris Seymour]

Thanks @olofom added it to my answer +1