Convert any timedelta to seconds

total_seconds.py

def total_seconds(timedelta):
    """Convert timedeltas to seconds

    In Python, time differences can take many formats. This function can take
    timedeltas in any format and return the corresponding number of seconds, as
    a float.

    Beware! Representing timedeltas as floats is not as precise as representing
    them as a timedelta object in datetime, numpy, or pandas.

    Parameters
    ----------
    timedelta : various
        Time delta from python's datetime library or from numpy or pandas. If
        it is from numpy, it can be an ndarray with dtype datetime64. If it is
        from pandas, it can also be a Series of datetimes. However, this
        function cannot operate on entire pandas DataFrames. To convert a
        DataFrame, do df.apply(to_seconds)

    Returns
    -------
    seconds : various
        Returns the total seconds in the input timedelta object(s) as float.
        If the input is a numpy ndarray or pandas Series, the output is the
        same, but with a float datatype.
    """
    try:
        seconds = timedelta.total_seconds()
    except AttributeError:  # no method total_seconds
        one_second = np.timedelta64(1000000000, 'ns')
        # use nanoseconds to get highest possible precision in output
        seconds = timedelta / one_second
    return seconds

You just saved my day.