How to format elapsed time from seconds to hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds in Python?

Question

How can I format the time elapsed from seconds to hours, mins, seconds?

My code:

start = time.time()
... do something
elapsed = (time.time() - start)

Actual Output:

0.232999801636

Desired/Expected output:

00:00:00.23

score 203 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 24 '17 at 12:51

203

You could exploit timedelta:

>>> from datetime import timedelta
>>> str(timedelta(seconds=elapsed))
'0:00:00.233000'

edited Oct 24 '17 at 12:51

pixelou

748
6
17

answered Jan 06 '15 at 06:16

jfs

399,953
195
994
1,670

3

@PadraicCunningham: it works: `str(timedelta(seconds=86401))` -> `'1 day, 0:00:01'` – jfs Jan 06 '15 at 11:19
14

why is this not the right answer? everyone else is describing the impl of timedelta... – 43matthew Oct 20 '17 at 02:44
2

Can you control the format conveniently somehow? E.g. remove millis. – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Sep 14 '18 at 14:06
note that in Python2.7 this returns natural time, not hours:minutes:seconds. – sunsetjunks Jan 22 '19 at 09:51
@sunsetjunks the code in the answer produces the same result on both Python 2 and 3. – jfs Jan 22 '19 at 10:10

score 84 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 14 '18 at 14:08

If you want to include times like 0.232999801636 as in your input:

import time
start = time.time()
end = time.time()
hours, rem = divmod(end-start, 3600)
minutes, seconds = divmod(rem, 60)
print("{:0>2}:{:0>2}:{:05.2f}".format(int(hours),int(minutes),seconds))

Example:

In [12]: def timer(start,end):
   ....:         hours, rem = divmod(end-start, 3600)
   ....:         minutes, seconds = divmod(rem, 60)
   ....:         print("{:0>2}:{:0>2}:{:05.2f}".format(int(hours),int(minutes),seconds))
   ....:     

In [13]: timer(12345.242,12356.434)
00:00:11.19
In [14]: timer(12300.242,12600.5452)
00:05:00.30
In [19]: timer(0.343,86500.8743)
24:01:40.53
In [16]: timer(0.343,865000.8743)
 240:16:40.53    
In [17]: timer(0,0.232999801636)
00:00:00.23

This is a great demonstration of the overall idea, maybe good for a customized formatting, but for simply showing a formatted version of the elapsed time, the solution from jfs is probably more clear with less technical overhead: `str(datetime.timedelta(seconds=(stop-start)))` https://stackoverflow.com/a/27793118/3585557 — Steven C. Howell, Mar 16 '21 at 18:08

Friedrich -- Слава Україні · Answer 3 · 2023-03-03T18:22:12.720

11

The strftime function of time itself can be (ab)used with limitations (no millisec and <24 hr)

elapsed = 4*3600 + 13*60 + 6                        # 15186 s
time.strftime("%Hh%Mm%Ss", time.gmtime(elapsed))   # '04h13m06s'

edited Mar 03 '23 at 18:22

answered Jun 12 '20 at 11:12

Friedrich -- Слава Україні

2,901
1
21
40

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 05 '15 at 12:44

3

import time
start = time.time()
#do something
end = time.time()
temp = end-start
print(temp)
hours = temp//3600
temp = temp - 3600*hours
minutes = temp//60
seconds = temp - 60*minutes
print('%d:%d:%d' %(hours,minutes,seconds))

answered Jan 05 '15 at 12:44

implicati0n

269
2
10

I tested it by setting `temp = 65432` so I couldn't see that the output for something that works just a few seconds will be missing the double zeros. @PadraicCunningham – implicati0n Jan 05 '15 at 13:35

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 07 '22 at 03:30

If you want one line of code without import any other library, that worked for me (Python v3.7.11):

print("Elapsed time: " + time.strftime("%H:%M:%S.{}".format(str(elapsed % 1)[2:])[:15], time.gmtime(elapsed)))

Output:

Elapsed time: 00:38:01.357318

You can control the milliseconds to be displayed by modifying "[:15]" to "[:11]", then you will get the desired result:

Elapsed time: 00:45:18.65

How to format elapsed time from seconds to hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds in Python?

5 Answers5