Finding mean duration(H:M:S) in python pandas

Question

I am trying to find the mean duration in a pandas dataframe. I have tried the following code and receive the error:

TypeError: Could not convert 1:10:4200:38:5800:42:142:30:4100:19:22 to numeric

Code:

import pandas as pd

duration=['1:10:42','38:58','42:14','2:30:41','19:22']
dist=[8,5,6,17,3]
dd=list(zip(duration,dist))
df=pd.DataFrame(dd,columns=['duration','dist'])
print(df)
print('')
max_dist=df['dist'].max()
mean_dist=df['dist'].mean()
df['duration'] = df['duration'].apply(lambda x: x if len(str(x)) ==7 else '00:'+str(x)) 
print(df['duration'])
pd.to_datetime(df['duration'],format='%H:%M:%S').dt.time
max_duration=df['duration'].max()
mean_duration=df['duration'].mean()
print('')
print('max dist =',max_dist,'ave dist =',mean_dist)
print('max duration =',max_duration,'ave duration =',mean_duration)

The max duration returns the correct value. Does the error message mean that the datetime format cannot be used for the mean or is there another way that I'm missing? Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Assign after pd.to_timedelta and find mean i.e

df['duration'] = pd.to_timedelta(df['duration'])
print('max duration =',max_duration,'ave duration =',df['duration'].mean())

Output:

max duration = 02:30:41 ave duration = 0 days 01:04:23.400000