datetime - Converting decimal time (HH.HHH) into HH:MM:SS in Python

Question

I have hours in this format,

72.345, 72.629, 71.327, ...

as a result of performing a calculation in Python. It seems that the simplest way to convert these into HH:MM:SS format is using the datetime module like this:

time = str(datetime.timedelta(seconds = 72.345*3600))

However, that returns a values with days, which I don't want:

'3 days, 0:20:42'

This is the best way my brain came up with the final values I want:

str(int(math.floor(time))) + ':' + str(int((time%(math.floor(time)))*60)) + ':' + str(int(((time%(math.floor(time)))*60) % math.floor(((time%(math.floor(time)))*60))*60))

Which is ridiculously long and probably unnecessary. But it does give me the answer I want:

'72:20:41'

Are there better methods?

Answer 1

You do not have to use datetime. You can easily compute hours, minutes and seconds from your decimal time.

You should also notice that you can use string formatting which is really easier to use than string concatenation.

time = 72.345

hours = int(time)
minutes = (time*60) % 60
seconds = (time*3600) % 60

print("%d:%02d.%02d" % (hours, minutes, seconds))
>> 72:20:42