DOC: Document datetime and timedelta to python's object type conversion #29557
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jorenham
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Aug 13, 2025
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| - For microseconds or coarser, returns a datetime.timedelta. | ||
| - For units finer than microseconds, returns an integer. |
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months, years, and unit-less timedelta's also return integers:
>>> import numpy as np
>>> np.timedelta64(1, "M").item()
1
>>> np.timedelta64(1, "Y").item()
1
>>> np.timedelta64(1).item()
1
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The need to document
datetimeandtimedeltato Python object type conversions arose during a discussion in issue #29516NumPy follows a strict type conversion protocol when converting datetime64 or timedelta64 to standard Python objects. The rules are as follows:
Conversion of datetime64 to Python objects
Conversion of timedelta64 to Python objects
Currently, this behavior is not clearly documented, which can lead to ambiguity for end users, forcing them to infer the conversion rules through experimentation.