Python | time.time() method

Time module in Python provides various time-related functions. This module comes under Python’s standard utility modules.

time.time() method of Time module is used to get the time in seconds since epoch. The handling of leap seconds is platform dependent.

Note: The epoch is the point where the time starts, and is platform dependent. On Windows and most Unix systems, the epoch is January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 (UTC) and leap seconds are not counted towards the time in seconds since the epoch. To check what the epoch is on a given platform we can use time.gmtime(0).

Syntax: time.time()

Parameter: No parameter is required

Return type: This method returns a float value which represents the time in seconds since the epoch.

Code #1: Use of time.time() method

# Python program to explain time.time() method

# importing time module
import time

# Get the epoch
obj = time.gmtime(0)
epoch = time.asctime(obj)
print("epoch is:", epoch)

# Get the time in seconds
# since the epoch
time_sec = time.time()

# Print the time
print("Time in seconds since the epoch:", time_sec)

Output:

epoch is: Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Time in seconds since the epoch: 1566454995.8361387

Code #2: Calculate seconds between two date

# Python program to explain time.time() method

# importing time module
import time

# Date 1
date1 = "1 Jan 2000 00:00:00"

# Date 2
# Current date
date2 = "22 Aug 2019 00:00:00"

# Parse the date strings
# and convert it in
# time.struct_time object using
# time.strptime() method
obj1 = time.strptime(date1, "% d % b % Y % H:% M:% S")
obj2 = time.strptime(date2, "% d % b % Y % H:% M:% S")

# Get the time in seconds
# since the epoch
# for both time.struct_time objects
time1 = time.mktime(obj1)
time2 = time.mktime(obj2)

print("Date 1:", time.asctime(obj1))
print("Date 2:", time.asctime(obj2))


# Seconds between Date 1 and date 2
seconds = time2 - time1
print("Seconds between date 1 and date 2 is % f seconds" % seconds)

Output:

Date 1: Sat Jan  1 00:00:00 2000
Date 2: Thu Aug 22 00:00:00 2019
Seconds between date 1 and date 2 is 619747200.000000 seconds

Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/library/time.html#time.time