How can I format timedelta for display

Question

My script calculate the difference in 2 time. Like this:

lasted = datetime.strptime(previous_time, FMT) - datetime.strptime(current_time, FMT)

Answer 1

[insert shameless self-promotion disclamer here]

You can use https://github.com/frnhr/django_timedeltatemplatefilter

It's packaged as a tempalte filter for Django, so here is the important part, just plain Python:

def format_timedelta(value, time_format="{days} days, {hours2}:{minutes2}:{seconds2}"):

    if hasattr(value, 'seconds'):
        seconds = value.seconds + value.days * 24 * 3600
    else:
        seconds = int(value)

    seconds_total = seconds

    minutes = int(floor(seconds / 60))
    minutes_total = minutes
    seconds -= minutes * 60

    hours = int(floor(minutes / 60))
    hours_total = hours
    minutes -= hours * 60

    days = int(floor(hours / 24))
    days_total = days
    hours -= days * 24

    years = int(floor(days / 365))
    years_total = years
    days -= years * 365

    return time_format.format(**{
        'seconds': seconds,
        'seconds2': str(seconds).zfill(2),
        'minutes': minutes,
        'minutes2': str(minutes).zfill(2),
        'hours': hours,
        'hours2': str(hours).zfill(2),
        'days': days,
        'years': years,
        'seconds_total': seconds_total,
        'minutes_total': minutes_total,
        'hours_total': hours_total,
        'days_total': days_total,
        'years_total': years_total,
    })

Doesn't get more simple than that :) Still, check out the readme for a few examples.

For your example:

>>> format_timedelta(lasted, '{hours_total}:{minutes2}:{seconds2}')
0:02:01