CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythontimedate-arithmetic
Karel Adams
Karel Adams

Reputation: 305

python: calculation of time progress

I am writing python code that handles a text file and, for each line of input, calculates the time involved with the action described in that line, then reports a "running time". Required output like

        lapse     time
start            12:00
action1  0:37    12:37
action2  1:01    13:38
action3  0:30    14:08

I came to some possible approaches but all looked awkward. Most of all I am confused about using either "time" or "strftime" or "datetime" or perhaps even something else. I am sure a simple elegant solution must exist.

NB timezones and DST are of no concern, if I can get to show UTC that is sufficient, at least for a beginning. In a later stage the last column (UTC) might be augmented by a column "local time" but that is secondary.

Edited, for apparent lack of clarity, to add example pseudo-code:

 TIME='12:00'
 PCS_PER_HOUR=750
 with infile:
  read line of data
  process data, including calc of PCS_DONE
  LAPSE=PCS_DONE/PCS_PER_HOUR
  TIME += LAPSE
  print(' .....   ' ,format(data, data, data, LAPSE, TIME))

My question is how to make the "TIME='12:00" into something that python can easily handle, and increment with a calculated integer number of seconds or minutes or whatever.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 441

Answers (1)

Roland Smith
Roland Smith

Reputation: 43573

Use datetime.timedelta.

Set the start time.

In [1]: import datetime

The initial time is 12 hours.

In [2]: start = datetime.timedelta(hours=12)

In [3]: start
Out[3]: datetime.timedelta(0, 43200)

Let's say that LAPSE is 0.23 hours (pieces divided by pieces per hour yields hours).

In [4]: action1 = datetime.timedelta(hours=0.23)

Now you can format the times like you want. The standard representation is hours, minutes and seconds:

In [5]: str(start)
Out[5]: '12:00:00'

In [6]: str(start+action1)
Out[6]: '12:13:48'

Upvotes: 1

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