Finding difference in time

Question

I am creating a program in Python in which the user has to type the alphabet as quick as possible and then the computer outputs the time they took. My code so far is:

import sys
from datetime import *

ready = raw_input('Press enter when ready')

first = datetime.now().time()
alph = raw_input('TYPE!!!')
second = datetime.now().time()
if alph != 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz':
    print 'Inocrrect!'
    sys.exit()
else:
    time = second - first
    print 'It took you', time.seconds

The programs has an error when working out the difference between the two times:

TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for -: 'datetime.time' and 'datetime.time'

How can I fix this?

don't use local time to find the elapsed time, use either UTC time or aware datetime objects. See [Find if 24 hrs have passed between datetimes - Python](http://stackoverflow.com/q/26313520/4279) — jfs, Oct 13 '15 at 08:55

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 12 '15 at 17:07

2

You cannot subtract datetime.time from datetime.time objects. It would be better to use datetime.now() (which contains both date and time components). Example -

first = datetime.now()
alph = raw_input('TYPE!!!')
second = datetime.now()

answered Oct 12 '15 at 17:07

Anand S Kumar

88,551
18
188
176

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 12 '15 at 17:07

1

Arithmetic is not supported on Python's time type. Try using just the datetime instead:

first = datetime.now()
alph = raw_input('TYPE!!!')
second = datetime.now()

answered Oct 12 '15 at 17:07

Will Vousden

32,488
9
84
95

Finding difference in time

2 Answers2