Python humanize time-interval without Arrow or Humanize libraries

tl;dr Sometimes when we need to debug functions in Python, we need a way to write some quick timer code to capture the time-delta and to compute the time it took for the function to execute. This article shows you a quick and easy way to humanize a time-interval/time-delta without bringing in additional dependencies or libraries like Arrow or Humanize.

Elapsed Time: 2 Days, 5 Hours, 7 Minutes, 13 Seconds 

Sometimes when we need to debug functions in Python, we need a way to write some quick timer code to capture the time-delta and to compute the time it took for the function to execute. As an example:

from datetime import datetime 
start = datetime.now()
# Then call some long running code or function here
end = datetime.now()
diff = end - start
print diff

And this gives you:

print diff
123 days, 16:48:22

Now the variable “diff” holds a value of type: timedelta (elapsed-time or time-interval in seconds) as shown with the Python type() function below:

print type(diff)
<class 'datetime.timedelta'>

To get it formatted into a human-readable friendly format, you can bring in a library such as Arrow or Humanize. There is nothing wrong with these libraries. In fact, they are two great libraries that I use frequently. But sometimes, you just need to display the time-interval or time-delta in a human readable format without brining in an additional library into the mix to display “Elapsed Time” in a friendly format like this:

Elapsed Time: 2 Days, 5 Hours, 7 Minutes, 13 Seconds 

The snippet below will get you the results you need:

days = diff.days # Get Day 
hours,remainder = divmod(diff.seconds,3600) # Get Hour
minutes,seconds = divmod(remainder,60) # Get Minute & Second

print(f'Elapsed Time: {days} Days, {hours} Hours, {minutes} Minutes, {seconds} Seconds.') 

Sample Output:

Elapsed Time: 2 Days, 5 Hours, 7 Minutes, 13 Seconds 

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Full Working Example:

from datetime import datetime 
start = datetime.now()
# Then call some long running code or function here
end = datetime.now()
diff = end - start
print type(diff)
print diff
days = diff.days # Get Day 
hours,remainder = divmod(diff.seconds,3600) # Get Hour
minutes,seconds = divmod(remainder,60) # Get Minute & Second
print(f’Elapsed Time: {days} Days, {hours} Hours, {minutes} Minutes, {seconds} Seconds.’)

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The trick to this example/implementation is to use the divmod function in Python. The divmod() function in python takes two numbers and returns a pair of numbers (tuple) consisting of their quotient and remainder.

Syntax:

divmod(x, y)
x and y : x is numerator and y is denominator
x and y must be non complex
Returns tuple (quotient, remainder)

Examples:

Input: x = 9, y = 3
Output: (3, 0)
# 3 is quotient, 0 is remainder
Input: x = 16, y = 3
Output:(5, 1)
# 5 is quotient, 1 is remainder

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