Calculate time span in Python

Question

im using Python v2.x on Windows 64bit

I would like to record two moments in real time and calculate the time span. Please see code as following:

current_time1 = datetime.datetime.now().time() # first moment

# ... some statement...some loops...take some time...

current_time2 = datetime.datetime.now().time() # second moment

time_span = current_time1 - current_time2

Apparently the last line is not executable because current_time is not integer, so my question is, how to convert this statement to integer to do the math? Convert to seconds is my first thought...

Answer 1

Subtracting a one datetime.datetime.now() from another gives you a datetime.timedelta instance. If you run dir() on it, you will likely find some useful functions.

>>> x = datetime.datetime.now()
# wait a second or two or use time.sleep()
>>> y = datetime.datetime.now()
>>> z = y - x
>>> type(z)
<type 'datetime.timedelta'>
>>> print(list(filter(lambda x: not x.startswith("_"), dir(z))))
['days', 'max', 'microseconds', 'min', 'resolution', 'seconds', 'total_seconds']
>>> print(z.total_seconds())
2.31

Answer 2

current_time1 = datetime.datetime.now()
time.sleep(50)
current_time2 = datetime.datetime.now()

print (current_time2 - current_time1)

or alternatively

time1 = time.time()
time.sleep(50)
time2 = time.time()
print("%s seconds"%(time2-time1))