Python Script to Do Something at the Same Time Every Day

Python script to do something at the same time every day

You can do that like this:

from datetime import datetime
from threading import Timer

x=datetime.today()
y=x.replace(day=x.day+1, hour=1, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0)
delta_t=y-x

secs=delta_t.seconds+1

def hello_world():
    print "hello world"
    #...

t = Timer(secs, hello_world)
t.start()

This will execute a function (eg. hello_world) in the next day at 1a.m.

EDIT:

As suggested by @PaulMag, more generally, in order to detect if the day of the month must be reset due to the reaching of the end of the month, the definition of y in this context shall be the following:

y = x.replace(day=x.day, hour=1, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0) + timedelta(days=1)

With this fix, it is also needed to add timedelta to the imports. The other code lines maintain the same. The full solution, using also the total_seconds() function, is therefore:

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
from threading import Timer

x=datetime.today()
y = x.replace(day=x.day, hour=1, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0) + timedelta(days=1)
delta_t=y-x

secs=delta_t.total_seconds()

def hello_world():
    print "hello world"
    #...

t = Timer(secs, hello_world)
t.start()

Scheduling Python Script to run every hour accurately

Maybe this can help: Advanced Python Scheduler

Here's a small piece of code from their documentation:

from apscheduler.schedulers.blocking import BlockingScheduler

def some_job():
    print "Decorated job"

scheduler = BlockingScheduler()
scheduler.add_job(some_job, 'interval', hours=1)
scheduler.start()

How can I say to Python to do an instruction at a given time?

You could easy use datetime to help you with that.

import datetime
from time import sleep

timing = [10, 0, 0] # Hour, minute, second, in 24 hour time

while True: # Repeat forever
    now = datetime.datetime.now()
    data = [now.hour, now.minute, now.second]
    if data == timing:
        # Code to be executed
        print("Hello World")
        #######
        sleep(1) # To ensure the command is not repeated again
        # break # Uncomment this if you want to execute the command only once

Make sure that I indented it properly, because one space can tick python off :).

The way that it works:
import datetime and from time import sleep import the necessary modules and functions that you will need.

Modules needed:
datetime
time.sleep

Now we're set.
timing = [10,0,0] sets the time that you want to use (you'll see why later)

while True repeats the loop... on and on and on.

now = datetime.datetime.now() creates a shortcut for such a long piece of text.

data == timing makes sure the time matches the timing you asked.

Note that the timing is in UTC
Go to Getting the correct timezone offset in Python using local timezone to know how to find your offset.

An offset of UTC-0200 (Or -7200 seconds) means that you need to ADD 2 hours to your time to get UTC. Or, if your time zone is UTC+0200, SUBSTRACT 2 hours from your time.

What is the best way to repeatedly execute a function every x seconds?

If your program doesn't have a event loop already, use the sched module, which implements a general purpose event scheduler.

import sched, time
s = sched.scheduler(time.time, time.sleep)
def do_something(sc): 
    print("Doing stuff...")
    # do your stuff
    sc.enter(60, 1, do_something, (sc,))

s.enter(60, 1, do_something, (s,))
s.run()

If you're already using an event loop library like asyncio, trio, tkinter, PyQt5, gobject, kivy, and many others - just schedule the task using your existing event loop library's methods, instead.

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