Pass time unit as a variable to the keyword argument in time delta function.

Question

Is it possible to achieve something like this?

def subtract_from_date(date, time_unit, num):
    return date - timedelta(time_unit=num)

Basically I am feeling too lazy to put if elif conditions for various input time units like minutes, hours, weeks, days etc.

Answer 1

You can use a dictionary and apply it as a mapping argument:

timedelta(**{time_unit: num})

Demo:

>>> from datetime import datetime, timedelta, date
>>> def subtract_from_date(date, time_unit, num):
...     return date - timedelta(**{time_unit: num})
... 
>>> subtract_from_date(date.today(), 'days', 5)
datetime.date(2015, 3, 21)