Python: convert seconds to hh:mm:ss

Question

Hi,

Please, how to convert an int (number a seconds) to these formats: mm:ss or hh:mm:ss ?

I need to do this with Python code (and if possible in a Django template ?).

Thank you very much ;-)

Answer 1

Have you read up on the datetime module?

Edit/update: SilentGhost's answer has the details my answer leaves out. If you like this answer, +1 his as well (or instead). Reposted here:

>>> a = datetime.timedelta(seconds=65)
datetime.timedelta(0, 65)
>>> str(a)
'0:01:05'

Answer 2

Besides the fact that Python has built in support for dates and times (see bigmattyh's response), finding minutes or hours from seconds is easy:

minutes = seconds / 60
hours = minutes / 60

Now, when you want to display minutes or seconds, MOD them by 60 so that they will not be larger than 59

Answer 3

Not being a python person but easiest without any libraries just:

total   = 3800
seconds = total % 60
total   = total - seconds
hours   = total / 3600
total   = total - (hours * 3600)
mins    = total / 60

Updated code, thanks sth

Answer 4

You can calculate the number of minutes and hours from the number of seconds by simple division:

seconds = 12345
minutes = seconds // 60
hours = minutes // 60

print "%02d:%02d:%02d" % (hours, minutes % 60, seconds % 60)
print "%02d:%02d" % (minutes, seconds % 60)

Here // is pythons integer division.

Answer 5

Just be careful when dividing by 60: division between integers returns an integer -> 12/60 = 0 unless you import division from future. The following is copy and pasted from Python 2.6.2:

IDLE 2.6.2      
>>> 12/60
0
>>> from __future__ import division
>>> 12/60
0.20000000000000001

Answer 6

>>> a = datetime.timedelta(seconds=65)
datetime.timedelta(0, 65)
>>> str(a)
'0:01:05'

Answer 7

Code that does what was requested, with examples, and showing how cases he didn't specify are handled:

def format_seconds_to_hhmmss(seconds):
    hours = seconds // (60*60)
    seconds %= (60*60)
    minutes = seconds // 60
    seconds %= 60
    return "%02i:%02i:%02i" % (hours, minutes, seconds)

def format_seconds_to_mmss(seconds):
    minutes = seconds // 60
    seconds %= 60
    return "%02i:%02i" % (minutes, seconds)

minutes = 60
hours = 60*60
assert format_seconds_to_mmss(7*minutes + 30) == "07:30"
assert format_seconds_to_mmss(15*minutes + 30) == "15:30"
assert format_seconds_to_mmss(1000*minutes + 30) == "1000:30"

assert format_seconds_to_hhmmss(2*hours + 15*minutes + 30) == "02:15:30"
assert format_seconds_to_hhmmss(11*hours + 15*minutes + 30) == "11:15:30"
assert format_seconds_to_hhmmss(99*hours + 15*minutes + 30) == "99:15:30"
assert format_seconds_to_hhmmss(500*hours + 15*minutes + 30) == "500:15:30"

You can--and probably should--store this as a timedelta rather than an int, but that's a separate issue and timedelta doesn't actually make this particular task any easier.

Answer 8

I can't believe any of the many answers gives what I'd consider the "one obvious way to do it" (and I'm not even Dutch...!-) -- up to just below 24 hours' worth of seconds (86399 seconds, specifically):

>>> import time
>>> time.strftime('%H:%M:%S', time.gmtime(12345))
'03:25:45'

Doing it in a Django template's more finicky, since the time filter supports a funky time-formatting syntax (inspired, I believe, from PHP), and also needs the datetime module, and a timezone implementation such as pytz, to prep the data. For example:

>>> from django import template as tt
>>> import pytz
>>> import datetime
>>> tt.Template('{{ x|time:"H:i:s" }}').render(
...     tt.Context({'x': datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(12345, pytz.utc)}))
u'03:25:45'

Depending on your exact needs, it might be more convenient to define a custom filter for this formatting task in your app.

Answer 9

If you use divmod, you are immune to different flavors of integer division:

# show time strings for 3800 seconds

# easy way to get mm:ss
print "%02d:%02d" % divmod(3800, 60)

# easy way to get hh:mm:ss
print "%02d:%02d:%02d" % \
    reduce(lambda ll,b : divmod(ll[0],b) + ll[1:],
        [(3800,),60,60])


# function to convert floating point number of seconds to 
# hh:mm:ss.sss
def secondsToStr(t):
    return "%02d:%02d:%02d.%03d" % \
        reduce(lambda ll,b : divmod(ll[0],b) + ll[1:],
            [(t*1000,),1000,60,60])

print secondsToStr(3800.123)

Prints:

63:20
01:03:20
01:03:20.123