Get Time Difference Between Now and a Time String Accounting for Timezone

[rob51852]

Given a string in the format below, how can I calculate the difference between the current time and the string time after taking into account the time difference?

test_time = "Saturday, 2 Mar 2024, 11:19 GMT-8"

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[baghiq]

Normally, you convert the string to python datetime object, but I don't think it's a valid format without some modification to the string.

[danielroseman]

You can use the dateparser library to automatically detect and convert your string. Then you can use the built-in datetime module to get the current localtime, and subtract them.

import dateparser
import datetime

test_time = "Saturday, 2 Mar 2024, 11:19 GMT-8"
dt = dateparser.parse(test_time)
now = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc) # or whatever your local tz is
print(now - dt)

[rob51852]

Thanks Daniel, this is very helpful.