yeah, now that datetime has the fixed offset timezone object out of the box, this may well make sense.

On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 3:38 AM, Akira Li <4kir4.1i@gmail.com> wrote:
"Franklin? Lee" <leewangzhong+python@gmail.com> writes:
>     mytime = datetime(2015, 10, 16, 9, 13, 0, tzinfo=-7)
>     # mytime.tzinfo == -7
>     # or: mytime.tzinfo == timezone(timedelta(-7))
>
> Alternatively, introduce a new keyword parameter to explictily indicate hours:
>     mytime = datetime(2015, 10, 16, 9, 13, 0, tzhours=-7)
>     # mytime.tzinfo == timezone(timedelta(-7))

timedelta(-7) is 7 *days*

Such simple errors are an argument against using unlabeled integers
instead of objects that know that they represent days, hours, etc.

Except he made this error creating the timedelta object anyway -- so no help there. But a new keyword would make this pretty clear:

mytime = datetime(2015, 10, 16, 9, 13, 0, tzhours=-7)

if you can't figure out that tzhours is expected to be units of hours, we can forget the whole thing!

I have to agree:

mytime = datetime(2015, 10, 16, 9, 13, 0, tzinfo=timezone(timedelta(hours=-7)))

is pretty wordy, and requires a fair bit of digging into the docs to understand. though an example of this in the docs would be a good start.

And yes, in the general case, "timezones" are NOT fixed-offset -- but working with fixed-offset data is pretty common.

I would understand if you were to suggest to use the timezone names, to
simplify usage:

  dt = datetime(2015, 10, 16, 9, 13, 0, tzinfo='America/Los_Angeles')

well, that's a whole other ball of wax, requiring a database that's maintained. There was a PEP For that, but I don't think it's going forward. 

but anyway, the OP WANTS a fixed-offset -- NOT a region, politically driven timezone -- there should be a way to get that easily -- the only issue is whether explicitly creating a timezone object with a timedelta object s easy enough.

I'm actually surprised that the built- in timezone class takes a timedelta -- this seems to be a heavyweight object-oriented, statically types style approach :-) -- I've never seen a timezone offset described anyting other than hours -- why not use that?

-CHB

--

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

Emergency Response Division
NOAA/NOS/OR&R            (206) 526-6959   voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE   (206) 526-6329   fax
Seattle, WA  98115       (206) 526-6317   main reception

Chris.Barker@noaa.gov