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Python

Posted by Neil Andruski
Neil Andruski
21,509 Points

Need help with timestamp_oldest problem

I am having trouble trying to understand what i need to do with the fromtimestamp method within this problem. Its not working and I am getting a missing Year(pos 1) error. This is what I have so far but I don't know if I am on the right track

import datetime

# If you need help, look up datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp()
def timestamp_oldest(args):
  #set a starting reference
  result = datetime.datetime()
  diff = datetime.dateim.now() - datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(args[0])

  #loop through arguments to find the oldest
  for arg in args:

    #if the oldest update references
    if(datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(arg) > diff):
      diff = datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(arg)
      result = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(arg)

  return result

2 Answers

Kenneth Love
STAFF
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Kenneth Love
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest Teacher

You have a typo on line 7 (the first with diff =).

As for how to use datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(), you just pass it a POSIX timestamp, which is what *args is full of.

You're doing a lot of unnecessary extra work. Remember way back in Python Basics and Python Collections when we talked about how list has a .sort() method that sorts a list? Well, timestamps are just floats so they sort oldest to newest just fine. Convert your *args tuple into a sortable format, though.

Adam Tatusko
Adam Tatusko
16,589 Points
Adam Tatusko
Adam Tatusko
16,589 Points

Here's my solution based on Kenneth's help:

import datetime

def timestamp_oldest(*my_tuple):
  my_list = list(my_tuple)
  my_list.sort()
  return datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(my_list[0])
Kenneth Love
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Kenneth Love
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest Teacher

The only faster way I know of (but haven't taught yet), would be to use sorted().

import datetime


def timestamp_oldest(*args):
    return datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(sorted(args)[0])
Adam Tatusko
Adam Tatusko
16,589 Points

That's some fine Python code there, Kenneth. You can't get much more concise than that! :-)