Python: Calculate two date difference in seconds

Last update on April 22 2025 12:47:23 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

36. Difference in Seconds

Write a Python program to calculate the difference between two dates in seconds.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Import the datetime and time classes from datetime module
from datetime import datetime, time
# Define a function called date_diff_in_Seconds which calculates the difference in seconds between two datetime objects
def date_diff_in_Seconds(dt2, dt1):
    # Calculate the time difference between dt2 and dt1
    timedelta = dt2 - dt1
    # Return the total time difference in seconds
    return timedelta.days * 24 * 3600 + timedelta.seconds

# Specified date: January 1, 2015, at 01:00:00
date1 = datetime.strptime('2015-01-01 01:00:00', '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
# Current date and time
date2 = datetime.now()

# Print the time difference in seconds between the current date and the specified date
print("\n%d seconds" %(date_diff_in_Seconds(date2, date1)))
# Print an empty line
print()

Output:

74175795 seconds

Explanation:

In the exercise above,

The code imports the "datetime" and "time" classes from the "datetime" module. which are necessary for working with date and time objects.
It defines a function named "date_diff_in_Seconds()" which calculates the difference in seconds between two "datetime" objects.
• Inside the function:

It calculates the time difference (timedelta) between 'dt2' and 'dt1' using simple subtraction.
It converts the time difference into seconds by multiplying the number of days by 24 hours and then by 3600 seconds, and adding the number of seconds in the "timedelta".

It defines 'date1' as a specified date, January 1, 2015, at 01:00:00, using the "strptime()" function to parse the string into a "datetime" object.
It defines 'date2' as the current date and time using the "datetime.now()" function.
It prints the time difference in seconds between 'date2' and 'date1'.

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a Python program to calculate the difference in seconds between two given dates and times using datetime arithmetic.
Write a Python script that computes the total seconds between two datetime objects and then formats the result into hours, minutes, and seconds.
Write a Python function to determine the number of seconds between a user-input start and end datetime, and then check if the result exceeds a threshold.
Write a Python program to take two datetime strings, convert them, and then output the difference in seconds along with a message indicating if it is less than an hour.

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