How do I find the time difference between two datetime objects in python?

Question

How do I tell the time difference in minutes between two datetime objects?

Answer 1

Based on @Attaque great answer, I propose a shorter simplified version of the datetime difference calculator:

seconds_mapping = {
    'y': 31536000,
    'm': 2628002.88, # this is approximate, 365 / 12; use with caution
    'w': 604800,
    'd': 86400,
    'h': 3600,
    'min': 60,
    's': 1,
    'mil': 0.001,
}

def get_duration(d1, d2, interval, with_reminder=False):
    if with_reminder:
        return divmod((d2 - d1).total_seconds(), seconds_mapping[interval])
    else:
        return (d2 - d1).total_seconds() / seconds_mapping[interval]

I've changed it to avoid declaring repetetive functions, removed the pretty print default interval and added support for milliseconds, weeks and ISO months (bare in mind months are just approximate, based on assumption that each month is equal to 365/12).

Which produces:

d1 = datetime(2011, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1000)
d2 = datetime(2011, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2500)

print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'y', True))      # => (0.0, 2678400.0015)
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'm', True))      # => (1.0, 50397.12149999989)
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'w', True))      # => (4.0, 259200.00149999978)
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'd', True))      # => (31.0, 0.0014999997802078724)
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'h', True))      # => (744.0, 0.0014999997802078724)
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'min', True))    # => (44640.0, 0.0014999997802078724)
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 's', True))      # => (2678400.0, 0.0014999997802078724)
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'mil', True))    # => (2678400001.0, 0.0004999997244524721)

print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'y', False))     # => 0.08493150689687975
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'm', False))     # => 1.019176965856293
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'w', False))     # => 4.428571431051587
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'd', False))     # => 31.00000001736111
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'h', False))     # => 744.0000004166666
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'min', False))   # => 44640.000024999994
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 's', False))     # => 2678400.0015
print(get_duration(d1, d2, 'mil', False))   # => 2678400001.4999995