python: difference of two timedate strings

Question

I have two date strings (taken from user input and can vary greatly)

s1 = \'2011:10:01:10:30:00\'
s2 = \'2011:10:01:11:15:00\'

I wish to fi

Answer 1

The time module can be helpful for this.

import time

s1 = '2011:10:01:10:30:00'
s2 = '2011:10:01:11:15:00'

s1Time = time.strptime(s1, "%Y:%m:%d:%H:%M:%S")
s2Time = time.strptime(s2, "%Y:%m:%d:%H:%M:%S")

deltaInMinutes = (time.mktime(s2Time) - time.mktime(s1Time)) / 60.0
print deltaInMinutes, "minutes"