# obspy.core.stream.Stream.slice

`Stream.``slice`(starttime=None, endtime=None, keep_empty_traces=False, nearest_sample=True)

  Return new Stream object cut to the given start and end time.

  - Parameters: | starttime (`UTCDateTime`) Specify the start time of all traces. endtime (`UTCDateTime`) Specify the end time of all traces. keep_empty_traces (bool, optional) Empty traces will be kept if set to `True`. Defaults to `False`. nearest_sample (bool, optional) If set to `True`, the closest sample is selected, if set to `False`, the inner (next sample for a start time border, previous sample for an end time border) sample containing the time is selected. Defaults to `True`. Given the following trace containing 6 samples, “|” are the sample points, “A” is the requested starttime:
        |         |A        |         |       B |         |
        1         2         3         4         5         6
  `nearest_sample=True` will select samples 2-5, `nearest_sample=False` will select samples 3-4 only.
  Returns: | `Stream`

  Note

  The basic idea of `slice()` is to avoid copying the sample data in memory. So sample data in the resulting `Stream` object contains only a reference to the original traces.

  Example

      >>> st = read()
      >>> print(st)
      3 Trace(s) in Stream:
      BW.RJOB..EHZ | 2009-08-24T00:20:03.000000Z ... | 100.0 Hz, 3000 samples
      BW.RJOB..EHN | 2009-08-24T00:20:03.000000Z ... | 100.0 Hz, 3000 samples
      BW.RJOB..EHE | 2009-08-24T00:20:03.000000Z ... | 100.0 Hz, 3000 samples
      >>> dt = UTCDateTime("2009-08-24T00:20:20")
      >>> st = st.slice(dt, dt + 5)
      >>> print(st)
      3 Trace(s) in Stream:
      BW.RJOB..EHZ | 2009-08-24T00:20:20.000000Z ... | 100.0 Hz, 501 samples
      BW.RJOB..EHN | 2009-08-24T00:20:20.000000Z ... | 100.0 Hz, 501 samples
      BW.RJOB..EHE | 2009-08-24T00:20:20.000000Z ... | 100.0 Hz, 501 samples

### Thank you!

We would like to thank our contributors, whose efforts make this software what it is. These people have helped by writing code and documentation, and by testing. They have created and maintained this product, its associated libraries and applications, our build tools and our web sites.

#### Contributors

- Ackerley, Nick
- Allgeyer, Sebastien
- Ammon, Charles J.
- Antunes, Emanuel
- Arnarsson, Ólafur St.
- Bank, Markus
- Barsch, Robert
- Behr, Yannik
- Bernardi, Fabrizio
- Bernauer, Felix
- Bes de Berc, Maxime
- Beyreuther, Moritz
- Boltz, Shawn
- Bonaimé, Sébastien
- Carothers, Lloyd
- Chamberlain, Calum
- Chambers, Derrick
- Chen, Zhao
- Clark, Adam
- Danecek, Peter
- Egdorf, Sven
- Engels, Fabian
- Ermert, Laura
- Eulenfeld, Tom

- Fabbri, Tommaso
- Falco, Nicholas
- Fee, Jeremy
- Grellier, Clément
- Grunberg, Marc
- Hammer, Conny
- Heimann, Sebastian
- Heiniger, Lukas
- Hope, Gaute
- Igel, Heiner
- Inza, Adolfo
- Isken, Marius
- Ketchum, David
- Koymans, Mathijs
- Kremers, Simon
- Kress, Victor
- Krieger, Lars
- Krischer, Lion
- Kula, Damian
- Käufl, Paul
- Köhler, Andreas
- Lecocq, Thomas
- Leeman, John
- Legovini, Paride

- Lesage, Philippe
- Li, Yulin
- Lomax, Anthony
- Lopes, Rui L.
- MacCarthy, Jonathan
- Maggi, Alessia
- Martin, Henri
- Medlin, Andrew
- Megies, Tobias
- Meschede, Matthias
- Michelini, Alberto
- Miller, Nathaniel C.
- Morgenstern, Bernhard
- Nof, Ran Novitsky
- Panning, Mark P.
- Parker, Tom
- Pestourie, Romain
- Rapagnani, Giovanni
- Reyes, Celso
- Ringler, Adam
- Rothenhäusler, Nicolas
- Russo, Emiliano
- Sales de Andrade, Elliott

- Satriano, Claudio
- Saul, Joachim
- Scheingraber, Chris
- Schneider, Simon
- Sippl, Christian
- Snoke, Arthur
- Stange, Stefan
- Stähler, Simon C.
- Sullivan, Benjamin
- Tian, Dongdong
- Trabant, Chad
- Trani, Luca
- Uieda, Leonardo
- Walker, Andrew
- Walther, Marcus
- Wassermann, Joachim
- Williams, Mark C.
- Winkelman, Andrew
- Zaccarelli, Riccardo
- Zad, Seyed Kasra Hosseini
- Zhu, Lijun
- van Driel, Martin
- van Wijk, Kasper

#### Funds

ObsPy was partially funded by the

- German Science Foundation (DFG) via grant DFG IG 16/9-1
- German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), GEOTECHNOLOGIEN grant 03G0646H.
- NERA project (Network of European Research Infrastructures for Earthquake Risk Assessment and Mitigation) under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) grant agreement n° 262330
- Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics (LIAG)
- VERCE EU-FP7 project (no. 283543)