How to Convert Seconds To hh:mm:ss (Hours, Minutes, and Seconds) in Python

There are cases where the application gets time information in seconds, but we need to store that information in hours, minutes, seconds (hh:mm:ss) format, or vice-versa.

By the end of this article, you’ll learn: –

• How to convert seconds into hours, minutes, seconds (hh:mm:ss) format
• How to convert hours, minutes, seconds (hh:mm:ss) to seconds.

Convert Seconds To Hours, Minutes, and Seconds using Timedelta

Example 1: Convert seconds to hh:mm:ss

from datetime import timedelta

sec = 6010
print('Time in Seconds:', sec)

td = timedelta(seconds=sec)
print('Time in hh:mm:ss:', td)

# Use the below code if you want it in a string
print(str(timedelta(seconds=sec)))

Output:

Time in Seconds: 6010
Time in hh:mm:ss: 1:40:10

Example 2: Display it in Human readable format

• First, Create the timedelta object by passing seconds to it
• Next, convert the timedelta object to a string
• Next, split the string into individual components to get hours, minutes, and seconds

from datetime import timedelta

def get_time_hh_mm_ss(sec):
    # create timedelta and convert it into string
    td_str = str(timedelta(seconds=sec))
    print('Time in seconds:', sec)

    # split string into individual component
    x = td_str.split(':')
    print('Time in hh:mm:ss:', x[0], 'Hours', x[1], 'Minutes', x[2], 'Seconds')

get_time_hh_mm_ss(29500)
get_time_hh_mm_ss(7500040)

Output:

Time in seconds: 29500
Time in hh:mm:ss: 8 Hours 11 Minutes 40 Seconds

Time in seconds: 7500040
Time in hh:mm:ss: 86 days, 19 Hours 20 Minutes 40 Seconds

seconds = 7500040
print('Time in Seconds:', seconds)

# get min and seconds first
mm, ss = divmod(seconds, 60)
# Get hours
hh, mm= divmod(mm, 60)

print('Time in Seconds:', hh, 'Hours', mm, 'Minutes', ss, 'Seconds')

Time in Seconds: 7500040
Time in Seconds: 2083 Hours 20 Minutes 40 Seconds

Convert hh:mm:ss to Seconds

Now, let’s assume we have to inverse the above example, i.e., we want to convert hours, minutes, and seconds time string to seconds in Python.

Let’s assume you have a string in the format H:MM:SS, and you need the represent it in seconds.

For example:

• “1:40:10” would produce an output of 6010 seconds
• “0:05:15” would produce an output of 315 seconds
• “0:00:32” would produce an output of 32 seconds

Steps to convert hours, minutes, seconds to seconds:

• Split the string into individual components and store it in the hours, minutes, and seconds variable.
• Multiply hours by 3600
• Multiple minutes by 60
• Add all the numbers to the seconds variable.

Example:

def get_seconds(time_str):
    print('Time in hh:mm:ss:', time_str)
    # split in hh, mm, ss
    hh, mm, ss = time_str.split(':')
    return int(hh) * 3600 + int(mm) * 60 + int(ss)

print('Time in Seconds:', get_seconds('1:40:10'))
print('Time in Seconds:', get_seconds('0:05:15'))
print('Time in Seconds:', get_seconds('0:00:32'))

Output:

Time in hh:mm:ss: 1:40:10
Time in Seconds: 6010

Time in hh:mm:ss: 0:05:15
Time in Seconds: 315

Time in hh:mm:ss: 0:00:32
Time in Seconds: 32

Convert Current Time in Seconds to Days, hh:mm:ss

• Get the current time in seconds using the timestamp() function
• Pass it to the timedelta() constructor

from datetime import datetime, timedelta

# current time in seconds
sec = datetime.now().timestamp()
print('Time in seconds:', sec)

# convert to Days, hh:mm:ss
td = timedelta(seconds=sec)
print('Time in Days, hh:mm:ss.ms:', td)

Output:

Time in seconds: 1626698950.164824
Time in Days, hh:mm:ss.ms: 18827 days, 12:49:10.164824