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Michael Pastran
4,727 Pointsdatetime Challenge
i have no idea how this is working. i just know that it is. lol can anyone explain why? thank you
import datetime
def minutes(datetime1,datetime2):
return round((datetime1.minute - datetime2.minute)/8)
2 Answers
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 PointsHi Michael,
I'm only guessing here because I don't have access to the code challenge backend but I suspect it's a coincidence. I think the code challenge is only running one test and your calculation happened to produce the right answer. The right answer for the wrong reasons.
If you run your code without the divide by 8 you'll get the following error message: 'Got the wrong number of minutes. Expected 7, got 53.'
From this we can deduce that the 2 datetime's are 7 minutes apart and furthermore we know they are crossing an hour boundary.
It's not something like 2:10pm and 2:17pm. It's more like 2:58pm and 3:05pm.
If you were to grab the minutes from each of those and subtract you would get 58 - 5 = 53
This is what the challenge got. It might not be those exact times but I think they're crossing an hour boundary like that.
Going back to your code: 53 / 8 = 6.625 which gets rounded up to 7 and this is the number the challenge is expecting to get.
So you found a calculation that just happened to produce the right number.
This of course is my guess but it seems plausible.
Were you just experimenting and you know how to pass the challenge correctly or do you need hints on how to do it?
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,423 PointsThat's too funny!!! It works because the grader only uses one set of test values that you've gamed to give you the correct answer!
It "works" because datetime1.minute is 59, datetime2.minute is 6. The difference is 53 when divided by 8 is 6.625. Rounded this becomes 7. What you are not checking is that datetime1.hour is 12, datetime2.hour is 13. Remember "older" times have "lower" values.
You're supposed to solve it by realizing that the difference spans across the hour boundary (hint 7+53=60) and may even span the days or large boundaries. It would be best to convert both times to seconds, subtract, then convert results back to minutes.