How to add two datetime.datetime objects?

Question

I want to add two datetime objects.

>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> a = datetime.strptime("04:30",'%H:%M')
>>> b = datetime.strptime("02:30",'%H:%M')
>>> a
datetime.datetime(1900, 1, 1, 4, 30)
>>> b
datetime.datetime(1900, 1, 1, 2, 30)

when i subtract b from a, it gives me the output

>>> a-b
datetime.timedelta(0, 7200)

but, when i add a and b it gives me error

>>> a+b
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
 TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'datetime.datetime' and    'datetime.datetime'

I want to add the time of b to time of a, i.e i want this.

datetime.datetime(1900, 1, 1, 7, 00)

please help ?

Answer 1

Agreeing with the previous poster, there isn't a meaningful way to add two datetimes, as they're just points in time, you can only deal with the difference between them (timedeltas). Since you don't explicitly mention the dates in your example, this seems like it would be more along the lines of what you're trying to accomplish:

>>> a = datetime.timedelta(0, (4*3600+30*60))
>>> b = datetime.timedelta(0, (2*3600+30*60))
>>> a+b
datetime.timedelta(0, 25200)
>>> print a+b
7:00:00

As timedeltas take days, seconds, and microseconds you need to multiply your hours and minutes to get them to the correct base.