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Python Dates and Times in Python (2014) Let's Build a Timed Quiz App Harder Time Machine

Posted by Mark Chesney
Mark Chesney
11,747 Points

How do I pass a string as a function parameter?

I'm pretty sure my code works (didn't submit it yet), but before I do, how do I pass a string as a function parameter, in this specific case as a parameter to datetime.timedelta?

Using the given example in the code comments, the second argument is "minutes", and because minutes is a parameter of datetime.timedelta(), is there a neat way to convert that argument directly into the parameter (with the noted exception of "years", of course).

Did we already learn this? Would **kwargs unpacking work here? Thanks!

time_machine.py 
import datetime

starter = datetime.datetime(2015, 10, 21, 16, 29)

# Remember, you can't set "years" on a timedelta!
# Consider a year to be 365 days.

## Example
# time_machine(5, "minutes") => datetime(2015, 10, 21, 16, 34)

def time_machine(number_of_time_units, time_units):
    if time_units=="days":
        return starter + datetime.timedelta(days=number_of_time_units)
    elif time_units=="years":
        return starter + datetime.timedelta(days=365*number_of_time_units)
    elif time_units=="hours":
        return starter + datetime.timedelta(hours=number_of_time_units)
    elif time_units=="minutes":
        return starter + datetime.timedelta(minutes=number_of_time_units)