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16 changes: 16 additions & 0 deletions Doc/library/datetime.rst
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -261,6 +261,22 @@ A :class:`timedelta` object represents a duration, the difference between two
>>> (d.days, d.seconds, d.microseconds)
(-1, 86399, 999999)

Since the string representation of :class:`!timedelta` objects can be confusing,
use the following recipe to produce a more readable format:

.. code-block:: pycon

>>> def pretty_timedelta(td):
... if td.days >= 0:
... return str(td)
... return f'-({-td!s})'
...
>>> d = timedelta(hours=-1)
>>> str(d) # not human-friendly
'-1 day, 23:00:00'
>>> pretty_timedelta(d)
'-(1:00:00)'


Class attributes:

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3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions Lib/test/datetimetester.py
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -773,6 +773,9 @@ def test_str(self):
microseconds=999999)),
"999999999 days, 23:59:59.999999")

# This is for the docs recipe
eq(f'-({-td(hours=-1)!s})', "-(1:00:00)")

def test_repr(self):
name = 'datetime.' + self.theclass.__name__
self.assertEqual(repr(self.theclass(1)),
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