Python Minutes to HH:MM Conversion

Question

I am trying to determine the best way to add a column to my pandas dataframe that converts total minutes (which is in int format) into HH:MM format. I am aware that the easiest way to do this is with datetime, but I can't seem to figure out the best way to convert the data from a Series to make this happen.

Here is the error message:

TypeError: unsupported type for timedelta minutes component: Series

Code (eg 346.0):

df['minutes_asleep_hm'] = str(timedelta(minutes=df['minutes_asleep']))[:-3]

Type:

Name: minutes_asleep, dtype: float64

Answer 1

Series is essentially a list of values. You need to use a map function which applies a given operation to every element in the series and returns the result of this function as a series.

df['minutes_asleep_hm'] = df['minutes_asleep'].map(lambda x: str(timedelta(minutes=x))[:-3], na_action='ignore')

Notes:

1. The variable x , though undescriptive, is pretty standard for lambdas and is used here to keep the line short. It represents the current series value that the function is operating on.
2. A lambda isn't required. Any standard function will do, but a lambda was used as it's fairly standard and is a convienient one liner.