monkey patching time.time() in python

Question

Hello guys, I've an application where, for testing, I need to replace the time.time() call with a specific timestamp, I've done that in the past using ruby

(code available here: http://github.com/zemariamm/Back-to-Future/blob/master/back_to_future.rb )

However I do not know how to do this using Python.

Any hints ? Cheers, Ze Maria

Answer 1

You can simply set time.time to point to your new time function, like this:

import time

def my_time():
    return 0.0

old_time = time.time
time.time = my_time

Answer 2

By the way, don't ever let code like that escape your test environment. That is absolutely not the Python way of doing things and will incur the wrath of other programmers who suddenly realize why their time-based calculations are mysteriously broken.