- Python: Get difference between two datetimes in seconds
- Python Example 1: Get difference between two timestamps in seconds
- Frequently Asked:
- Python Example 2: Get difference between two dates in seconds
- Python Example 3: Get difference between two timestamps in seconds
- Python Example 4: Get difference between two datetimes in seconds
- Python Example 5: Get difference between two datetimes in seconds using pandas
- Related posts:
- Share your love
- Leave a Comment Cancel Reply
- Terms of Use
- Disclaimer
- Different Methods in Python to Calculate Time Difference in Seconds
- What is mean by datetime module?
- How datetime module work?
- Benefits of datetime module
- What are the syntax, parameters, and return type to get the current date and time?
- Syntax to get current date and time
- Parameter
- Returns
- Example
- Output
- What are the syntax, parameter, and return type to create date objects?
- Syntax
- Example
- Output
- Parameter
- Returns
- 2 Examples in Python to Find Time Difference in Seconds
- Example 1
- Example 2
- Frequently Asked Questions Related to Python Time Difference in Seconds
- Conclusion
Python: Get difference between two datetimes in seconds
Now to get the difference between two timestamps in python, we will use the datetime module. First we will create start and end datetime objects from the string timestamps. Then we will subtract the datetime objects to get the duration in the datetime.timedelta object. Then using the properties of timedelta object, we will fetch the seconds in between the two timestamps. Let’s understand with some examples,
Python Example 1: Get difference between two timestamps in seconds
Convert the timestamps in string format to datetime objects. Then subtract them and get the timedelta object. Then use the total_seconds() function of timedelta object to get the complete duration between two timestamps in seconds. For example,
from datetime import datetime date_1 = '24/7/2021 11:13:08' date_2 = '24/7/2021 11:14:18' date_format_str = '%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S' start = datetime.strptime(date_1, date_format_str) end = datetime.strptime(date_2, date_format_str) # Get the interval between two datetimes as timedelta object diff = end - start print('Difference between two datetimes in seconds:') print(diff.total_seconds())
Difference between two datetimes in seconds: 70.0
How did it work ?
Frequently Asked:
We created the two datetime objects from the two timestamps in the string format, by passing the date and it’s format in the strptime() function. Then we subtracted these two datetime objects and got the datetime.timedelta object, which represents the duration between two dates. The timedelta class has a member function total_seconds(), which represents the complete duration in seconds (including the fractional part till milliseconds). We used that fetch the difference between two timestamp in seconds.
Python Example 2: Get difference between two dates in seconds
Let’s checkout an another example, where both the timestamps are more than 1 day apart,
from datetime import datetime date_1 = '24/7/2021 11:13:08' date_2 = '25/7/2021 11:14:18' date_format_str = '%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S' start = datetime.strptime(date_1, date_format_str) end = datetime.strptime(date_2, date_format_str) # Get the interval between two datetimes as timedelta object diff = end - start print('Difference between two datetimes in seconds:') print(diff.total_seconds())
Difference between two datetimes in seconds: 86470.0
The different between ’25/7/2021 11:14:18′ and ’24/7/2021 11:13:08′ is 86470.0 seconds.
If you are not interested in fractional part of seconds, then you can use this also,
print(diff.days * 24 * 60 * 60 + diff.seconds)
Here, timedelta.days represents the difference between two timestamp in days and timedelta.seconds represents the seconds that we need to add into the timedelta.days to get the complete difference. Whereas, timedelta.total_seconds() gives the complete interval between two timestamp in seconds.
Python Example 3: Get difference between two timestamps in seconds
Let’s checkout an another example, where both the timestamps are more than 2 years apart,
from datetime import datetime date_1 = '2/7/2021 21:55:12' date_2 = '24/9/2023 11:13:08' date_format_str = '%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S' start = datetime.strptime(date_1, date_format_str) end = datetime.strptime(date_2, date_format_str) # Get the interval between two datetimes as timedelta object diff = end - start print('Difference between two datetimes in seconds:') print(diff.total_seconds())
Difference between two datetimes in seconds: 70291076.0
The different between ’24/9/2023 11:13:08′ and ‘2/7/2021 21:55:12’ is 70291076.0 seconds.
Python Example 4: Get difference between two datetimes in seconds
If we have complete datetime objects instead of only timestamp strings, in that case lets see how to calculate the difference between two datetimes in seconds,
from datetime import datetime date_1 = datetime(2021, 7, 2, 21, 55, 12) date_2 = datetime(2021, 7, 24, 11, 13, 8) # Get the interval between two datetimes as timedelta object diff = date_2 - date_1 print('Difference between two datetimes in seconds:') print(diff.total_seconds())
Difference between two datetimes in seconds: 1862276.0
Python Example 5: Get difference between two datetimes in seconds using pandas
Suppose we have two timestamps in string format. We can convert them to datetime object using pandas.to_datetime() function. Then we will subtract the datetime objects to get the duration in the datetime.timedelta object. Then using the properties of timedelta object, we will fetch the total seconds in between the two timestamps. For example,
import pandas as pd from datetime import datetime date_1 = '2/7/2021 21:55:12' date_2 = '24/9/2023 11:13:08' date_format_str = '%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S' start = pd.to_datetime(date_1, format=date_format_str) end = pd.to_datetime(date_2, format=date_format_str) # Get the interval between two datetimes as timedelta object diff = end - start print('Difference between two datetimes in seconds:') print(diff.total_seconds())
Difference between two datetimes in seconds: 70291076.0
We learned that, in python how to get the difference between two datetimes in seconds.
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Different Methods in Python to Calculate Time Difference in Seconds
Here we are going to see different methods to calculate python time difference in seconds. We have so many ways, but here we are using straightforward ways to calculate the time difference. Python contains a standard library to calculate time, date, etc.
We are going to calculate the time difference using a module called “datetime.” This is the popular python module, and it is beneficial to get the date and time. Let us see here how to calculate the time difference in seconds.
What is mean by datetime module?
The datetime module provides time objects that are similar to the Time objects. A date in Python is not an object, but we can import a module “datetime” to get a date and time. It is a built-in function.
How datetime module work?
It combines date and time that contains some attributes like a year, month, date, hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds. It takes all the attributes as an integer. We can get today’s date or date objects and more using the datetime module.
Benefits of datetime module
- Calculate the difference between today and some other days. For example your birthday
- Apps that send an SMS or email to the user based on the date.
- Instagram or social media clone that can say that it was posted five days ago.
What are the syntax, parameters, and return type to get the current date and time?
Syntax to get current date and time
import module var=datetime.datetime.now() print(var)
Parameter
Returns
print current date and time
Example
import datetime a=datetime.datetime.now() print("Date and time is:",a)
Output
Date and time is: 2021-07-26 12:29:42.322270
What are the syntax, parameter, and return type to create date objects?
Syntax
import module var=datetime.datetime(year,month,day) print(var)
Example
import datetime a=datetime.datetime(2021,7,26) print(a)
Output
Parameter
year-month-date
Returns
2 Examples in Python to Find Time Difference in Seconds
Example 1
import datetime a = datetime.datetime(2021,7,26,13,7,30) b = datetime.datetime(2021,7,25,11,28,30) c=a-b seconds = c.total_seconds() print('Total difference in seconds: ', seconds)
Total difference in seconds: 93178.0
Explanation
First, importing a module datetime. Variable “a” holds the year, month, date, hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds. Likewise, variable “b” holds some date and time. Now we are going to calculate the difference between the two values.
For that, we are using a variable “c”. Variable c calculates the difference, and it holds the difference between both the values. Usually, the difference is in seconds only.
Next to creating another variable, “seconds,” to get the difference between two times in seconds. And then printing the difference value as an output. This method is useful to get a difference in seconds only. To get an exact value, another method is useful.
Example 2
from datetime import datetime val1=datetime.now() val2=datetime(2021,7,25,11,28) difference=val1-val2 print("The time difference in seconds",difference.total_seconds())
The time difference in seconds 93178.482513
Explanation
Here we are importing a module datetime to get the date and time. The difference compared to the previous one is that we are giving as “from datetime” to get the current date and time while importing the module. A variable val1 holds the current date and time.
Another variable, val2, holds the date and time, which we want to get the difference. A variable difference holds the difference between val1 and val2. Next, we are giving the print statement to get the difference in time. This method gives the exact output with milliseconds.
Frequently Asked Questions Related to Python Time Difference in Seconds
datetime module is used to get the date and time.
A date in Python is not an object, but we can import a module “datetime” to get a date and time.
import datetime
a=datetime.datetime.now()
print(“Date and time is:”,a)
5. Write an output for the following code
import datetime
a=datetime.datetime.now()
print(“Date and time is:”,a)
The output for the following code is
Date and time is: 2021-07-26 12:29:42.322270
It combines date and time that contains attributes like the year, month, date, hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds.
No, the datetime module is a built-in function that is already available in python. So, it is not necessary to install a datetime module
Conclusion
Here we have seen different methods to calculate time differences in seconds. The above shown two methods are just an example. There is a lot of methods available to get the time difference in seconds. datetime module has a lot of applications that are useful in our day-to-day life. It is one of the popular modules.