Introduction

In e-commerce, flash sales are special promotional events where products are offered at a discounted price for a limited period of time.
To create excitement and urgency around these sales, having a countdown timer can be very effective.
In this guide, we will learn how to build a simple Python program that functions as a flash sale countdown timer.

Objective

The objective of this program is to create a countdown timer for a flash sale event.
The timer will show the time remaining until the sale ends, updating every second.
This will help customers track the time left to avail of the discounted offers during a flash sale.

Python Code

import time

# Function to display the countdown timer
def flash_sale_timer(hours, minutes, seconds):
    total_seconds = hours * 3600 + minutes * 60 + seconds
    
    while total_seconds > 0:
        hours_left = total_seconds // 3600
        minutes_left = (total_seconds % 3600) // 60
        seconds_left = total_seconds % 60
        
        print(f"Flash Sale ends in: {hours_left:02}:{minutes_left:02}:{seconds_left:02}", end='\r')
        time.sleep(1)
        total_seconds -= 1
    
    print("Flash Sale Ended! Hurry up, the sale is over!")

# Set the timer for your flash sale (example: 1 hour, 30 minutes, 0 seconds)
flash_sale_timer(1, 30, 0)

Explanation of the Program

The Python program creates a countdown timer for the flash sale. Let’s break down its structure:

• Import time module: The time module is imported to use the sleep() function, which helps in delaying the next iteration of the countdown.
• flash_sale_timer function: This function accepts three arguments: hours, minutes, and seconds. The function calculates the total number of seconds from the provided time and begins the countdown.
• Countdown loop: A while loop runs until the total seconds become zero. In each loop iteration, it calculates and prints the remaining hours, minutes, and seconds in a format hh:mm:ss.
• time.sleep(1): The countdown is updated every second using time.sleep(1), which causes the program to wait for one second before the next iteration.
• Ending the Sale: Once the countdown reaches zero, the program outputs “Flash Sale Ended! Hurry up, the sale is over!” to indicate that the flash sale has ended.

How to Run the Program

To run this program, follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have Python installed on your system. You can download it from the official Python website: Download Python.
2. Open a text editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like VS Code or PyCharm.
3. Copy and paste the provided Python code into a new file and save it with a .py extension, for example, flash_sale_timer.py.
4. Open a terminal or command prompt, navigate to the directory where your flash_sale_timer.py file is saved.
5. Run the program by typing python flash_sale_timer.py in the terminal and press Enter.
6. The countdown timer will start, and you will see the time left for the flash sale in the terminal.