How to make a countdown in python

Learn how to make a countdown timer in Python with this step-by-step guide and example code.

Creating a Countdown in Python

Countdowns are a common feature of many applications and can be used to notify users of the time until an event or to create a sense of urgency. In Python, we can create a simple countdown timer using the time and datetime modules.

The time module provides access to the system’s time-keeping functions such as getting the current time and converting time strings. The datetime module, on the other hand, is used to work with date and time values and can be used to calculate the difference between two dates and times.

To begin, we will need to import the time and datetime modules. We will then set the time for our countdown by creating a datetime object with the desired date and time:

import time
import datetime

# Set the date and time for the countdown
countdown_date = datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 20, 12, 0, 0)

Next, we need to create a loop that will run until the desired date and time has been reached. Inside the loop, we will get the current date and time and compare it to our countdown date and time. We will subtract the two values to get the time remaining and then print it out:

# Enter the loop
while True:
    # Get the current date and time
    current_date = datetime.datetime.now()
    
    # Calculate the difference between the current date and time and the countdown date and time
    time_remaining = countdown_date - current_date
    
    # Print the time remaining
    print("Time remaining: " + str(time_remaining))
    
    # Sleep for 1 second
    time.sleep(1)

Finally, we need to check if the countdown date and time has been reached. If it has been reached, we will break out of the loop and print a message to let the user know the countdown is complete:

# Check if the countdown date and time has been reached
if time_remaining.total_seconds() <= 0:
    # Break out of the loop
    break

# Print a completion message
print("Countdown complete!")

And that's it! With just a few lines of code, we can create a simple countdown timer in Python.