Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

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

Adam Vasik
Adam Vasik
11,702 Points

I have no idea how to do this please help :(

I have been trying to solve this but my way doesn't work

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(**kwargs):
    td = datetime.timedelta(**kwargs)
    if 'years' in kwargs:
        tdd = datetime.timedelta(days = 365)
        return starter + (td + (tdd * getattr(other, 'years')
    return starter + td

3 Answers

Pratham Mishra
Pratham Mishra
14,191 Points

def time_machine(time_int, years): if years == 'years': time_int = 365 years = 'days' return starter + datetime.timedelta(*{years : time_int})

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,236 Points

The function should take a normal argument, you won't need "kwargs".
Another hint: you should also not need "getattr".

A simple solution for this problem is to first check if the string is 'years' and if so change the string to 'days' since timedelta will not except years as an argument. Then multiply the integer by 365 to get the equivalent number of days for the given number of years. Finally, return the duration as the difference of the starter datetime and the timedelta of the string and integer passed to the method as a literal dictionary with the ** prefix operator to unpack the dictionary.

import datetime

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

def time_machine(integer, string):
    if string == 'years':
        string = 'days'
        integer *= 365
    return starter + datetime.timedelta(**{string: integer})