ENH: timedelta_range unit keyword

doc/source/whatsnew/v2.0.0.rst

@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ Other enhancements
 - Fix ``test`` optional_extra by adding missing test package ``pytest-asyncio`` (:issue:`48361`)
 - :func:`DataFrame.astype` exception message thrown improved to include column name when type conversion is not possible. (:issue:`47571`)
 - :func:`date_range` now supports a ``unit`` keyword ("s", "ms", "us", or "ns") to specify the desired resolution of the output index (:issue:`49106`)
+- :func:`timedelta_range` now supports a ``unit`` keyword ("s", "ms", "us", or "ns") to specify the desired resolution of the output index (:issue:`49824`)
 - :meth:`DataFrame.to_json` now supports a ``mode`` keyword with supported inputs 'w' and 'a'. Defaulting to 'w', 'a' can be used when lines=True and orient='records' to append record oriented json lines to an existing json file. (:issue:`35849`)
 - Added ``name`` parameter to :meth:`IntervalIndex.from_breaks`, :meth:`IntervalIndex.from_arrays` and :meth:`IntervalIndex.from_tuples` (:issue:`48911`)
 -

pandas/core/arrays/timedeltas.py

@@ -254,8 +254,12 @@ def _from_sequence_not_strict(
 
         return result
 
+    # Signature of "_generate_range" incompatible with supertype
+    # "DatetimeLikeArrayMixin"
     @classmethod
-    def _generate_range(cls, start, end, periods, freq, closed=None):
+    def _generate_range(  # type: ignore[override]
+        cls, start, end, periods, freq, closed=None, *, unit: str | None = None
+    ):
 
         periods = dtl.validate_periods(periods)
         if freq is None and any(x is None for x in [periods, start, end]):
@@ -273,10 +277,21 @@ def _generate_range(cls, start, end, periods, freq, closed=None):
         if end is not None:
             end = Timedelta(end).as_unit("ns")
 
+        if unit is not None:
+            if unit not in ["s", "ms", "us", "ns"]:
+                raise ValueError("'unit' must be one of 's', 'ms', 'us', 'ns'")
+        else:
+            unit = "ns"
+
+        if start is not None and unit is not None:
+            start = start.as_unit(unit, round_ok=False)
+        if end is not None and unit is not None:
+            end = end.as_unit(unit, round_ok=False)
+
         left_closed, right_closed = validate_endpoints(closed)
 
         if freq is not None:
-            index = generate_regular_range(start, end, periods, freq)
+            index = generate_regular_range(start, end, periods, freq, unit=unit)
         else:
             index = np.linspace(start.value, end.value, periods).astype("i8")
 
@@ -285,7 +300,7 @@ def _generate_range(cls, start, end, periods, freq, closed=None):
         if not right_closed:
             index = index[:-1]
 
-        td64values = index.view("m8[ns]")
+        td64values = index.view(f"m8[{unit}]")
         return cls._simple_new(td64values, dtype=td64values.dtype, freq=freq)
 
     # ----------------------------------------------------------------

pandas/core/indexes/timedeltas.py

@@ -207,6 +207,8 @@ def timedelta_range(
     freq=None,
     name=None,
     closed=None,
+    *,
+    unit: str | None = None,
 ) -> TimedeltaIndex:
     """
     Return a fixed frequency TimedeltaIndex with day as the default.
@@ -226,6 +228,10 @@ def timedelta_range(
     closed : str, default None
         Make the interval closed with respect to the given frequency to
         the 'left', 'right', or both sides (None).
+    unit : str, default None
+        Specify the desired resolution of the result.
+
+        .. versionadded:: 2.0.0
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -270,10 +276,19 @@ def timedelta_range(
     TimedeltaIndex(['1 days 00:00:00', '2 days 08:00:00', '3 days 16:00:00',
                     '5 days 00:00:00'],
                    dtype='timedelta64[ns]', freq=None)
+
+    **Specify a unit**
+
+    >>> pd.timedelta_range("1 Day", periods=3, freq="100000D", unit="s")
+    TimedeltaIndex(['1 days 00:00:00', '100001 days 00:00:00',
+                    '200001 days 00:00:00'],
+                   dtype='timedelta64[s]', freq='100000D')
     """
     if freq is None and com.any_none(periods, start, end):
         freq = "D"
 
     freq, _ = dtl.maybe_infer_freq(freq)
-    tdarr = TimedeltaArray._generate_range(start, end, periods, freq, closed=closed)
+    tdarr = TimedeltaArray._generate_range(
+        start, end, periods, freq, closed=closed, unit=unit
+    )
     return TimedeltaIndex._simple_new(tdarr, name=name)

pandas/tests/indexes/timedeltas/test_timedelta_range.py

@@ -15,6 +15,12 @@
 
 
 class TestTimedeltas:
+    def test_timedelta_range_unit(self):
+        # GH#49824
+        tdi = timedelta_range("0 Days", periods=10, freq="100000D", unit="s")
+        exp_arr = (np.arange(10, dtype="i8") * 100_000).view("m8[D]").astype("m8[s]")
+        tm.assert_numpy_array_equal(tdi.to_numpy(), exp_arr)
+
     def test_timedelta_range(self):
 
         expected = to_timedelta(np.arange(5), unit="D")