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Convert strings like '5d' and '60s' to timedelta objects (Python recipe) by Dan McDougall
ActiveState Code (http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577894/)

I wrote this little function for [Gate One](http://vimeo.com/24857127) (a web-based terminal emulator/SSH client)... It converts strings in the format of <num><character> into timedelta objects. It's not rocket science but maybe it'll save someone a few keystrokes :). Besides that, it comes with a really nice Sphinx-ready (reStructuredText) docstring with complete doctests.

Python, 41 lines
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from datetime import timedelta

def convert_to_timedelta(time_val):
    """
    Given a *time_val* (string) such as '5d', returns a timedelta object
    representing the given value (e.g. timedelta(days=5)).  Accepts the
    following '<num><char>' formats:
    
    =========   ======= ===================
    Character   Meaning Example
    =========   ======= ===================
    s           Seconds '60s' -> 60 Seconds
    m           Minutes '5m'  -> 5 Minutes
    h           Hours   '24h' -> 24 Hours
    d           Days    '7d'  -> 7 Days
    =========   ======= ===================
    
    Examples::
    
        >>> convert_to_timedelta('7d')
        datetime.timedelta(7)
        >>> convert_to_timedelta('24h')
        datetime.timedelta(1)
        >>> convert_to_timedelta('60m')
        datetime.timedelta(0, 3600)
        >>> convert_to_timedelta('120s')
        datetime.timedelta(0, 120)
    """
    num = int(time_val[:-1])
    if time_val.endswith('s'):
        return timedelta(seconds=num)
    elif time_val.endswith('m'):
        return timedelta(minutes=num)
    elif time_val.endswith('h'):
        return timedelta(hours=num)
    elif time_val.endswith('d'):
        return timedelta(days=num)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    import doctest
    doctest.testmod()
Tags: datetime, timedelta