How do I shift the decimal place in Python?

Question:

I’m currently using the following to compute the difference in two times. The out – in is very fast and thus I do not need to display the hour and minutes which are just 0.00 anyway. How do I actually shift the decimal place in Python?

def time_deltas(infile): 
    entries = (line.split() for line in open(INFILE, "r")) 
    ts = {}  
    for e in entries: 
        if " ".join(e[2:5]) == "OuchMsg out: [O]": 
            ts[e[8]] = e[0]    
        elif " ".join(e[2:5]) == "OuchMsg in: [A]":    
            in_ts, ref_id = e[0], e[7] 
            out_ts = ts.pop(ref_id, None) 
            yield (float(out_ts),ref_id[1:-1], "%.10f"%(float(in_ts) - float(out_ts)))

INFILE = 'C:/Users/kdalton/Documents/Minifile.txt'
print list(time_deltas(INFILE))
Asked By: eunhealee

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Answers:

The same way you do in math

a = 0.01;
a *= 10; // shifts decimal place right
a /= 10.; // shifts decimal place left
Answered By: Andrew Rasmussen

or use the datetime module

>>> import datetime
>>> a = datetime.datetime.strptime("30 Nov 11 0.00.00", "%d %b %y %H.%M.%S")
>>> b = datetime.datetime.strptime("2 Dec 11 0.00.00", "%d %b %y %H.%M.%S")
>>> a - b
datetime.timedelta(-2)
Answered By: jan zegan

Expanding upon the accepted answer; here is a function that will move the decimal place of whatever number you give it. In the case where the decimal place argument is 0, the original number is returned. A float type is always returned for consistency.

*Edit: Fixed cases of inaccuracies due to floating-point representation.

    def moveDecimalPoint(num, places):
        '''Move the decimal place in a given number.

        Parameters:
            num (int/float): The number in which you are modifying.
            places (int): The number of decimal places to move.
        
        Returns:
            (float)
        
        Example:
            moveDecimalPoint(11.05, -2) #returns: 0.1105
        '''
        from decimal import Decimal

        num_decimal = Decimal(str(num))  # Convert the input number to a Decimal object
        scaling_factor = Decimal(10 ** places)  # Create a scaling factor as a Decimal object

        result = num_decimal * scaling_factor  # Perform the operation using Decimal objects
        return float(result)  # Convert the result back to a float
Answered By: m3trik
def move_point(number, shift, base=10):
    """
    >>> move_point(1,2)
    100
    >>> move_point(1,-2)
    0.01
    >>> move_point(1,2,2)
    4
    >>> move_point(1,-2,2)
    0.25
    """
    return number * base**shift
Answered By: Cees Timmerman
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