Title: Calculate Difference Between Dates And Times
Slug: calculate_difference_between_dates_and_times
Summary: How to calculate differences between dates and times for machine learning in Python.
Date: 2017-09-11 12:00
Category: Machine Learning
Tags: Preprocessing Dates And Times
Authors: Chris Albon

Preliminaries



In [1]:

    
# Load library
import pandas as pd

Create Date And Time Data



In [2]:

    
# Create data frame
df = pd.DataFrame()

# Create two datetime features
df['Arrived'] = [pd.Timestamp('01-01-2017'), pd.Timestamp('01-04-2017')]
df['Left'] = [pd.Timestamp('01-01-2017'), pd.Timestamp('01-06-2017')]

Calculate Difference (Method 1)



In [3]:

    
# Calculate duration between features
df['Left'] - df['Arrived']









    Out[3]:





0   0 days
1   2 days
dtype: timedelta64[ns]

Calculate Difference (Method 2)



In [4]:

    
# Calculate duration between features
pd.Series(delta.days for delta in (df['Left'] - df['Arrived']))









    Out[4]:





0    0
1    2
dtype: int64