Human_readable_duration_format.md

CodeWars Python Solutions

---

Human readable duration format

Your task in order to complete this Kata is to write a function which formats a duration, given as a number of seconds, in a human-friendly way.

The function must accept a non-negative integer. If it is zero, it just returns "now". Otherwise, the duration is expressed as a combination of years, days, hours, minutes and seconds.

It is much easier to understand with an example:

format_duration(62)    # returns "1 minute and 2 seconds"
format_duration(3662)  # returns "1 hour, 1 minute and 2 seconds"

For the purpose of this Kata, a year is 365 days and a day is 24 hours.

Note that spaces are important.

Detailed rules

The resulting expression is made of components like 4 seconds, 1 year, etc. In general, a positive integer and one of the valid units of time, separated by a space. The unit of time is used in plural if the integer is greater than 1.

The components are separated by a comma and a space (", "). Except the last component, which is separated by " and ", just like it would be written in English.

A more significant units of time will occur before than a least significant one. Therefore, 1 second and 1 year is not correct, but 1 year and 1 second is.

Different components have different unit of times. So there is not repeated units like in 5 seconds and 1 second.

A component will not appear at all if its value happens to be zero. Hence, 1 minute and 0 seconds is not valid, but it should be just 1 minute.

A unit of time must be used "as much as possible". It means that the function should not return 61 seconds, but 1 minute and 1 second instead. Formally, the duration specified by of a component must not be greater than any valid more significant unit of time.

---

Given Code

def format_duration(seconds):
    pass

---

Solution

def format_duration(seconds):
    words = ["year", "day", "hour", "minute", "second"]

    if not seconds:
        return "now"
    else:
        m, s = divmod(seconds, 60)
        h, m = divmod(m, 60)
        d, h = divmod(h, 24)
        y, d = divmod(d, 365)

        time = [y, d, h, m, s]

        duration = []

        for x, i in enumerate(time):
            if i == 1:
                duration.append(f"{i} {words[x]}")
            elif i > 1:
                duration.append(f"{i} {words[x]}s")

        if len(duration) == 1:
            return duration[0]
        elif len(duration) == 2:
            return f"{duration[0]} and {duration[1]}"
        else:
            return ", ".join(duration[:-1]) + " and " + duration[-1]

---

See on CodeWars.com