Add seconds to datetime in Python

Add seconds to datetime in Python #

Use the timedelta() class from the datetime module to add seconds to datetime, e.g. result = dt + timedelta(seconds=24). The timedelta class can be passed a seconds argument and adds the specified number of seconds to the datetime.

main.py

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from datetime import datetime, timedelta

# ✅ add seconds to datetime
dt = datetime(2023, 9, 24, 9, 30, 35)
print(dt)  # 👉️ 2023-09-24 09:30:35

result = dt + timedelta(seconds=24)
print(result)  # 👉️ 2023-09-24 09:30:59

# ------------------------------

# ✅ add seconds to current time

now = datetime.today()
print(now)  # 👉️ 2022-06-22 11:56:16.347314

result_2 = now + timedelta(seconds=15)
print(result_2)  # 👉️ 2022-06-22 11:56:51.620548

If you only have a time component, e.g. 09:30:13 scroll down to the last code snippet.

Make sure to import the datetime and timedelta classes from the datetime module.

The first example uses the datetime class to create a datetime object.

We passed values for the year, month, day, hour, minute and second arguments.

Once we have a datetime object, we can use the timedelta class to add seconds to it.

main.py

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from datetime import datetime, timedelta

# ✅ add seconds to datetime
dt = datetime(2023, 9, 24, 9, 30, 35)
print(dt)  # 👉️ 2023-09-24 09:30:35

result = dt + timedelta(seconds=24)
print(result)  # 👉️ 2023-09-24 09:30:59

The second example adds seconds to the current time.

main.py

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from datetime import datetime, timedelta


now = datetime.today()
print(now)  # 👉️ 2022-06-22 11:56:16.347314

result_2 = now + timedelta(seconds=15)
print(result_2)  # 👉️ 2022-06-22 11:56:51.620548

The datetime.today() method returns the current local datetime.

We need to use a datetime object because it automatically rolls over the minutes, hours, days, months and years if necessary.

This wouldn't be possible if we only had the time component. For example, 11:59:30PM + 50 seconds would raise an exception.

If you only have the time component, use the datetime.combine method to combine the time with the current (or some other) date and get a datetime object.

main.py

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from datetime import datetime, date, timedelta, time

t = time(9, 30, 13)
print(t)  # 👉️ 09:30:13

result = datetime.combine(date.today(), t) + timedelta(seconds=27)
print(result)  # 👉️ 2022-06-22 09:30:40

only_t = result.time()
print(only_t)  # 👉️ 09:30:40

The datetime.combine method takes a date and time as arguments and returns a new datetime object by combining them.

Once we get a datetime object, we can use the timedelta class to add seconds to it.

Use the time() method on the datetime object if you only need to extract the time after the operation.

main.py

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from datetime import datetime, date, timedelta, time

t = time(9, 30, 13)
print(t)  # 👉️ 09:30:13

result = datetime.combine(date.today(), t) + timedelta(seconds=27)
print(result)  # 👉️ 2022-06-22 09:30:40

# ✅ only get updated time
only_t = result.time()
print(only_t)  # 👉️ 09:30:40

The datetime.time method returns a time object with the same hour, minute, second and millisecond.

Add seconds to datetime in Python

Add seconds to datetime in Python #

Borislav Hadzhiev