[FIXED] Converting 'time values' stored in a tuple into 24 hours format

Issue

Suppose you have a tuple (Hours, minutes) and you want to convert it into 24 hours format hh:mm:ss. Assuming the seconds will always be 0. Eg. (14,0) will be 14:00:00 and (15,0) will be 15:00:00.

So far this is my sketchy way of coming close to the answer:

start_time = (14, 0)
st = ''

for num in start_time:
num = str(num)
if len(num) == 2:
    st += num
else:
    
    st += str(num) + '00'
print(st)

Solution

The problems with your current approach:

• you're not using any : character. After each iteration, check if it's the last by considering the index in your for-loop. If it's not, append a : character.

• if len(num) == 1, you're inserting two trailing zeros, when it should be one leading zero.

Refactored code:

start_time = (14, 0)
st = ''

# `i` will store the index for each iteration
for i, num in enumerate(start_time):
    num = str(num)

    if len(num) == 2:
        st += num
    else:
        # If the number of digits is not 2, append a leading '0'
        st += '0' + num
        
    # If it's not the last number in the tuple
    if i < len(start_time) - 1:
        st += ':'
    else:
        st += ':00'
        
print(st)

This will output the expected value.

An alternative and compact way of doing this:

def time(t):
    #      vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv   Join the mapped values to a single string using `:`
    #               vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv    Map this function to each value in this new tuple
    #                   vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv               Create a function that adds two trailing zero to a value
    #                                    vvvvvvvv     Create a new tuple with a trailing zero
    return ':'.join(map('{:02d}'.format, t + (0,)))

print(time((14, 0)))
print(time((15, 0)))

Answered By - enzo