python convert string to integer array

Question

Using python, I've just made two strings and now want to convert them into an integer array.

My two strings are the start and end times of an earth quake and look like this

"00:39:59.946000"

"01:39:59.892652"

I want to convert these two into integer arrays so that I can use numpy.arange() or numpy.linspace(). The expected output should be an array that has a number of evenly spaced values between the start and end time. For example,

array = [00:39:59.946000, 00:49:59.946000, 00:59:59.946000, 01:09:59.946000, etc...]

I want to then use the values of this array as each increment on the x-axis of my graph. Any advice / assistance would be appreciated.

Answer 1

>>> [int(x) for x in eq_time if x.isdigit()]

Answer 2

Can just you convert the timestamp to a epoch time?

Answer 3

>>> import time
>>> t1="00:39:59.946000"
>>> t2=time.strptime(t1.split('.')[0]+':2013', '%H:%M:%S:%Y') #You probably want year as well.
>>> time.mktime(t2) #Notice that the decimal parts are gone, we need to add it back
1357018799.0
>>> time.mktime(t2)+float('.'+t1.split('.')[1]) #(add ms)
1357018799.946

#put things together:
>>> def str_time_to_float(in_str):
    return time.mktime(time.strptime(in_str.split('.')[0]+':2013', '%H:%M:%S:%Y'))\
           ++float('.'+in_str.split('.')[1])
>>> str_time_to_float("01:39:59.892652")
1357022399.892652

Answer 4

Since your strings represent time data, how about taking a look at time.strptime?

Something along the lines of

from datetime import datetime                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

t1 = datetime.strptime("2013:00:39:59.946000", "%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f")                                                                               
t2 = datetime.strptime("2013:01:39:59.892652", "%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f")