timestamp.py challenge : Didn't get back a datetime

Hi Aldo,

Don't apologise for the comments, documenting your code is always helpful. I would suggest that in future you follow the guidance in the Markdown Cheatsheet and specify the language in your code snippet, as follows:

import datetime


def timestamp_oldest(*args):

    # Creating a simple list to sort
    # list1 = ['physics', 'chemistry', 'test1', 'test2', 'test3'];
    time_stamps = []
    format_time = []
    dtf = []  # a date time format list 

    # Sorting the list
    # list1.sort()
    time_stamps.append(args)


    # ts = time.time()
    for arg in args:
        actual_time = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(arg)
        # print(actual_time)
        format_time.append(actual_time)


    # Printing the list of format_time
    count = len(format_time)
    for index in range(0,count):
        result = datetime.datetime.strftime(format_time[index], "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S:%f")
        dtf.append(result)

    return dtf
    # for count in len(actual_time):
    #    result = datetime.datetime.strftime(format_time[count], "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S:%f")
    # print(result)

    # actual_time = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(ts)
    # print(actual_time)

As you can see, it makes the code MUCH more readable, and so much easier for people to help you.

As far as your code is concerned, you are making it harder than it needs to be. You don't need to put anything in a list and you mustn't return a list, you just return a single datetime.

Note that to solve this, all you need to do is:

1. get the smallest number in args. Since POSIX timestamps are simply numbers, you can use the min() function to get the smallest number (i.e., oldest timestamp) from args.

2. Now you are only working with one number, the POSIX timestamp representing the oldest point in time. You know how to create a datetime object from a timestamp (you do that when you assign a value to actual_time).

3. Once you've done that, all you need to do is return it.

Hope that's clear

Alex