Python: Calculate number of days between two datetimes

Last update on December 31 2024 05:45:16 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Write a Python program to calculate the number of days between two date times.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

# Import the datetime module
import datetime
# Import the datetime class from datetime module
from datetime import datetime

# Define a function called differ_days which calculates the difference in days between two datetime objects
def differ_days(date1, date2):
    # Assign date1 to variable a
    a = date1
    # Assign date2 to variable b
    b = date2
    # Return the difference in days between the two datetime objects
    return (a - b).days

# Print an empty line
print()
# Print the difference in days between October 12, 2016 (midnight) and December 10, 2015 (midnight)
print(differ_days((datetime(2016, 10, 12, 0, 0, 0)), datetime(2015, 12, 10, 0, 0, 0)))
# Print the difference in days between October 12, 2016 (midnight) and December 10, 2015 (11:59:59 PM)
print(differ_days((datetime(2016, 10, 12, 0, 0, 0)), datetime(2015, 12, 10, 23, 59, 59)))
# Print an empty line
print()

Output:

307                                                                                                           
306

Explanation:

In the exercise above,

• It imports the "datetime" module.
• It defines a function named "differ_days()" that takes two datetime objects (date1 and date2) as input and returns the difference in days between them.
• Inside the function:
• It assigns the input datetime objects 'date1' and 'date2' to variables 'a' and 'b' respectively.
• It calculates the difference in days between the two datetime objects using the 'days' attribute of the "timedelta" object obtained by subtracting 'b' from 'a'.
• It returns the difference in days.
• Then, it calls the differ_days function twice:
• First, it calculates and prints the difference in days between October 12, 2016 (midnight) and December 10, 2015 (midnight).
• Second, it calculates and prints the difference in days between October 12, 2016 (midnight) and December 10, 2015 (11:59:59 PM).

Flowchart:

Python Code Editor:

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