python - Pythonic difference between two dates in years?

Question

Is there a more efficient way of doing this below? I want to have the difference in years between two dates as a single scalar. Any suggestions are welcome.

from datetime import datetime
start_date = datetime(2010,4,28,12,33)
end_date = datetime(2010,5,5,23,14)
difference  = end_date - start_date
difference_in_years = (difference.days + difference.seconds/86400)/365.2425

Answer 1

If you want precise results, I recommend using the dateutil library.

from dateutil.relativedelta import relativedelta
difference_in_years = relativedelta(end_date, start_date).years

This is for complete years (e.g. a person's age). If you want fractional years, then add months, days, hours, ... up to the desired precision.