pytimeparse: time expression parser

Copyright (c) 2014 Will Roberts <wildwilhelm@gmail.com>

Licensed under the MIT License (see source file timeparse.py for details).

A small Python library to parse various kinds of time expressions, inspired by this StackOverflow question.

The single function timeparse defined in the module parses time expressions like the following:

• 32m
• 2h32m
• 3d2h32m
• 1w3d2h32m
• 1w 3d 2h 32m
• 1 w 3 d 2 h 32 m
• 4:13
• 4:13:02
• 4:13:02.266
• 2:04:13:02.266
• 2 days, 4:13:02 (uptime format)
• 2 days, 4:13:02.266
• 5hr34m56s
• 5 hours, 34 minutes, 56 seconds
• 5 hrs, 34 mins, 56 secs
• 2 days, 5 hours, 34 minutes, 56 seconds
• 1.2 m
• 1.2 min
• 1.2 mins
• 1.2 minute
• 1.2 minutes
• 172 hours
• 172 hr
• 172 h
• 172 hrs
• 172 hour
• 1.24 days
• 5 d
• 5 day
• 5 days
• 5.6 wk
• 5.6 week
• 5.6 weeks

It returns the time as a number of seconds (an integer value if possible, otherwise a floating-point number):

>>> from pytimeparse.timeparse import timeparse
>>> timeparse('1.2 minutes')
72

A number of seconds can be converted back into a string using the datetime module in the standard library, as noted in this other StackOverflow question:

>>> from pytimeparse.timeparse import timeparse
>>> import datetime
>>> timeparse('1 day, 14:20:16')
138016
>>> str(datetime.timedelta(seconds=138016))
'1 day, 14:20:16'

Future work

1. Give the user more flexibility over which characters to use as separators between fields in a time expression (e.g., + might be useful).
2. Internationalisation?