Python Subtract Datetime Between Two Different Datetime – Python Tutorial

We often need to subtract two datetime in python. In this tutorial, we will introduce you how to do.

Method 1: subtract two datetime directly

We can subtract two datetime directly in python. For example:

import  datetime

date_1 = datetime.datetime(year = 2022, month=2, day=2, hour=14, minute=2, second=13)
date_2 = datetime.datetime(year = 2022, month=2, day=2, hour=16, minute=3, second=13)

date_3 = date_2 - date_1

print(date_3)
print(date_3.seconds)

Here we use date_2-date_1 to get date_3 directly.

Run this code, we will get:

2:01:00
7260

Here we should notice date_1 and date_2 are datetime object. If your datetime is string, you should convert it to datetime type.

Python Detect Datetime String Format and Convert to Different String Format – Python Datetime Tutorial

Method 2: convert datetime to timestamp for subtract

For example:

sec = datetime.datetime.timestamp(date_2) - datetime.datetime.timestamp(date_1)
print(sec)

We can use datetime.datetime.timestamp() to convert a datetime object to timestamp.

Then we will see:

7260.0