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Python Dates and Times in Python (2014) Let's Build a Timed Quiz App Harder Time Machine

Em Noble
Em Noble
6,967 Points

not sure why this is not working

cant see anything wrong. please help

time_machine.py
import datetime

starter = datetime.datetime(2015, 10, 21, 16, 29)

# Remember, you can't set "years" on a timedelta!
# Consider a year to be 365 days.

## Example
# time_machine(5, "minutes") => datetime(2015, 10, 21, 16, 34)

def time_machine(integer, string):
    integer = int(integer)
    string = str(string)
    if string == 'years':
        integer = integer * 365
    td = datetime.timedelta(string = integer)
    return (starter + td)

1 Answer

Chris Freeman
MOD
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,457 Points

Hey Em Noble, there are two errors happening in the code.

First, using (string=integer) will not do what you’re expecting. The string will be interpreted as the name of a keyword argument and not be evaluated as a variable. This is why you may see the error ’string’ not a valid keyword argument for this function.

One long solution is to use a series of if/elif/else statements to call timedelta with different keywords depending on the value of string. Another method is to create a dictionary and use dictionary unpacking to get the correct keyword.

timedelta(**{string=integer})

This works because string will be evaluated as a variable in the creation of the dictionary and will then have the correct value when interpreted as an argument keyword!

The second error is not resetting string = days in the if block.

Post back if you need more help. Good luck!!!