Python | Difference between two dates (in minutes) using datetime.timedelta() method

To find the difference between two dates in Python, one can use the timedelta class which is present in the datetime library. The timedelta class stores the difference between two DateTime objects. 
To find the difference between two dates in the form of minutes, the attribute seconds of timedelta object can be used which can be further divided by 60 to convert to minutes.

Example 1: The following program takes two datetime objects and finds the difference between them in minutes.  

Python

import datetime

# datetime(year, month, day, hour, minute, second)
a = datetime.datetime(2017, 6, 21, 18, 25, 30)
b = datetime.datetime(2017, 5, 16, 8, 21, 10)

# returns a timedelta object
c = a-b 
print('Difference: ', c)

minutes = c.total_seconds() / 60
print('Total difference in minutes: ', minutes)

# returns the difference of the time of the day
minutes = c.seconds / 60
print('Difference in minutes: ', minutes)

Output

Difference:  36 days, 10:04:20
Total difference in minutes:  52444.333333333336
Difference in minutes:  604.3333333333334

Time Complexity : O(1)

Space Complexity : O(1)

Example 2: To get a more appropriate answer divmod() can be used which will return the fractional part of the minutes in terms of seconds:  

Python

import datetime

# datetime(year, month, day, hour, minute, second)
a = datetime.datetime(2017, 6, 21, 18, 25, 30)
b = datetime.datetime(2017, 5, 16, 8, 21, 10)

# returns a timedelta object
c = a-b 
print('Difference: ', c)

# returns (minutes, seconds)
minutes = divmod(c.total_seconds(), 60) 
print('Total difference in minutes: ', minutes[0], 'minutes',
                                 minutes[1], 'seconds')

# returns the difference of the time of the day (minutes, seconds)
minutes = divmod(c.seconds, 60) 
print('Total difference in minutes: ', minutes[0], 'minutes',
                                 minutes[1], 'seconds')

Output

Difference:  36 days, 10:04:20
Total difference in minutes:  52444.0 minutes 20.0 seconds
Total difference in minutes:  604 minutes 20 seconds

Time Complexity : O(1)

Space Complexity : O(1)