Using Variable as Keyword Argument for Function

Question

I have the following piece of code:

quantity_of_units = int(funding_time_left.split[0])
unit_of_measurement = funding_time_left.split()[1]
now = datetime.datetime.now()
if unit_of_measurement == 'days':
    end = (now + timedelta(days=quantity_of_units)).strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
elif unit_of_measurement == 'hours':
    end = (now + timedelta(hours=quantity_of_units)).strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
else: # unit_of_measure == 'minutes'
    end = (now + timedelta(minutes=quantity_of_units)).strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
funding.append([aeles.get_attribute('href'), end])

I was wondering if it is possible to use a variable (unit_of_measurement) as the keyword argument (days, hours, minutes)?

If it is indeed possible, I could scrap the if elif else block altogether and turn it all into a single line. Below is what I'm hoping to do.

quantity_of_units = int(funding_time_left.split[0])
unit_of_measurement = funding_time_left.split()[1]
now = datetime.datetime.now()
end = (now + timedelta(unit_of_measurement=quantity_of_units)).strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
funding.append([aeles.get_attribute('href'), end])

Answer 1

You can, by using ** to unpack a dict in the arguments, which sets them to be keyword arguments.

timedelta(**{unit_of_measurement: quantity_of_units})

The reason why it works is because that unpacks to:

timedelta(<unit_of_measurement>=quantity_of_units)

Where <unit_of_measurement> is minutes, seconds, days...

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So you can replace your if... elif... else... statements with:

end = (now + timedelta(**{unit_of_measurement: quantity_of_units})).strftime('%Y-%m-%d')