I'm stuck (Dates and Times in Python, Timedelta-minute)

Question

I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong.  I think I don't understand timedelta well enough.
Below is what I've come up with, and the only error message I get from it is "Try again".  I've tried a number of different variants, but I'm just baffled.  Any help would be appreciated.
```minutes.py
import datetime
def minutes(datetime1, datetime2):
    datetime1 = datetime.datetime.now()
    datetime2 = datetime.datetime.today()
    seconds = datetime2.second - datetime1.second
    total = datetime.timedelta.total_seconds(seconds)
    minutes = round(total / 60)
    return minutes
```

Chris Freeman · Accepted Answer

Hey @Eric Nachtsheim (https://teamtreehouse.com/ericnachtsheim), you are not far off.
The assignments to datetime1 and datetime2 create new local references that override the arguments passed in. Remove these assignments
A datetime object does have a  seconds (https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime.second) attribute. The refers to the number of partial minutes in range(60)
subtracting two datetime objects creates a timedelta (https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#timedelta-objects) object. so, seconds = datetime2 - datetime1. "seconds" might not be the best variable name
It is this timedelta object that has the total_seconds() method. so total = seconds.total_seconds()
The rest flows correctly. 
Post back if you need more help. Good luck!!

Eric Nachtsheim · Answer

Got it.  I see what I was doing wrong.  Thanks so much!

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Eric Nachtsheim

Eric Nachtsheim

I'm stuck (Dates and Times in Python, Timedelta-minute)

2 Answers

Chris Freeman

Chris Freeman

Eric Nachtsheim

Eric Nachtsheim