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Python Dates and Times in Python (2014) Dates and Times Manipulating Time Already

Abhishek Kulkarni
Abhishek Kulkarni
4,405 Points

Why isn't there simply an 'Hour' attribute?

Why did we have to calculate hours on our own? There are attributes for days, seconds and microseconds but why not hours which has a lot more use cases.

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

The Python reference for timedelta says:

Only days, seconds and microseconds are stored internally. Arguments are converted to those units:

  • A millisecond is converted to 1000 microseconds.
  • A minute is converted to 60 seconds.
  • An hour is converted to 3600 seconds.
  • A week is converted to 7 days.

Only the language designers would know why they didn't break up the stored values further, but we might guess that it was for efficiency reasons, and because the other values can be easily calculated.

:bulb: Idea: You could create your own sub-class that provides additional values as computed properties.

After watching this video I knew that this course was recorded in 2014. Does this still work? Or it is outdated??

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Why not try a little experiment and find out? Or just check the current official documentation.