Python Timer Function: Measure Elapsed Time with EXAMPLES
Python provides a library that helps understand and read the time information in many ways. In Python, this library is termed the time module, and the module provides time and date objects to perform any time-related operation. Such operations do not manipulate timestamps or strings; instead, they manipulate objects.
Moreover, the Python time module offers several functions that help programmers program their time management-related tasks in Python. The time module can be deployed or used in the existing Python codes to record the performance of the Python code, and this allows the programmers to analyse the code’s performance.
How to use Python time structure?
The time structure in Python is represented by the object of time.struct_time. The syntax for Python time structure is represented as shown below: –
Syntax
Time.struct_time(tm_year=2020, tm_mon=4,tm_mday=22,tm_hour=20,tm_min=20,tm_sec=24,tm_wday=4,tm_yday=200,tm_isdst=1)
Following is the structure or order of time.struct_time as listed below:
Index | Attribute | Values |
---|---|---|
0 | tm_year | 0000, 2020, …,9999 |
1 | tm_mon | 1,2, 3,…12 |
2 | tm_mday | 1,2,3,4, 5,….31 |
3 | tm_hour | 0,1,2,3, 4,…23 |
4 | tm_min | 0,1,2,3….,59 |
5 | tm_sec | 0,1,2,3…,61 |
6 | tm_wday | 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 |
7 | tm_yday | 1,2,3,4,…366 |
8 | tm_isdist | -1,0,1 |
In the argument, tm_wday, Monday is represented as 0.
The time.struct_time values object can be represented using both attributes and indices.
The function time.asctime helps in the conversion of time. struct_time into a format that is readable in human string form.
How to use Python time epoch?
An epoch in Python is defined as a time instance selected as the start of a specific era. To get information on a Python epoch, you need to pass zero as an argument to the time. gmtime function. The epoch is represented as the time 00:00:00 UTC as of 1970, 1st January,
and it is also represented as 1970-01-01T00:00:00ZISO8601.
Following Python code showcases the application of Python time epoch as shown below: –
Python Code:
import time EpochExampleGuru99=time.gmtime(0) print("The Python epoch is",EpochExampleGuru99) print("The Python epoch year is ",EpochExampleGuru99.tm_year) print("The Python epoch month is ",EpochExampleGuru99.tm_mon) print("The Python epoch day is ", EpochExampleGuru99.tm_mday)
Output:
The Python epoch is time.struct_time(tm_year=1970, tm_mon=1, tm_mday=1, tm_hour=0, tm_min=0, tm_sec=0, tm_wday=3, tm_yday=1, tm_isdst=0) The Python epoch year is 1970 The Python epoch month is 1 The Python epoch day is 1
How to use Python time.time() for Timer?
The time function in the Python time module returns a number of seconds that have passed since the last defined epoch. It returns seconds in the form of floating-point data type.
The syntax for the Python time.time() function is represented as shown below: –
Syntax:
time.time()
The following code displays how to use the time function in Python: –
Python code:
import time print("The example shows the seconds by utilizing the time function : ", time.time())
Output:
The example shows the seconds by utilizing the time function:1643044348.60835
The above example shows the floating-point value and number of seconds. The time function can be utilized to compute the elapsed wall-clock time by taking two reference points.
The program for elapsed wall clock time is as shown below:
Python Code:
import time start_time_Guru99 = time.time() print("Time elapsed after some level wait...") print("The start time is", start_time_Guru99) time.sleep(1) end_time_Guru99 = time.time() print("The end time is", end_time_Guru99) print("Time elapsed in this example code: ", end_time_Guru99 - start_time_Guru99)
Output:
Time elapsed after some level of wait... The start time is 1643044897.5446985 The end time is 1643044898.545785 Time elapsed in this example code: 1.0010864734649658
How to use Python time.ctime()?
The ctime function in the Python time module takes an argument as the seconds, which is passed as an epoch and as an output, it provides a local time in string data type.
The seconds elapsed since the last epoch becomes input for ctime function.
The time function can also be used as an input or argument in the ctime function. The purpose of the function is to deliver output in an understandable format or in format that a human can understand.
The syntax for ctime() function of Python time module is shown below:
Syntax:
time.ctime()
The following Python code helps in illustrating the example of ctime() function in the Python module.
Python code:
import time start_time_Guru99 = time.time() print("Time elapsed after some level wait...") print("The start time is",start_time_Guru99) print("The start time in human form",time.ctime(start_time_Guru99)) time.sleep(1) end_time_Guru99 = time.time() print(time.ctime(time.time())) print("The end time is",end_time_Guru99) print("The start time in human form",time.ctime(end_time_Guru99)) print("Time elapsed in this example code: ",end_time_Guru99 - start_time_Guru99)
Output:
Time elapsed after some level of wait... The start time is 1643045765.633842 The start time in human form Mon Jan 24 17:36:05 2022 Mon Jan 24 17:36:06 2022 The end time is 1643045766.634578 The start time in human form Mon Jan 24 17:36:06 2022 Time elapsed in this example code: 1.0007359981536865
The above code begins with importing the time module. The variable start_time_guru99 is initialized with the time method, and similarly, the variable end_time_guru99 is initialized.
The variables are then converted to ctime format, which converts the time format to string format. This Python code computes the difference of the two initialized variables to arrive at the time elapsed value. The above output displays a human-readable string value. It also provides the difference in floating-point format.
How to use Python time.sleep() for Timer?
The sleep function available in the Python time module helps in slowing down the execution of a program. It halts the program execution for a few seconds that is passed as an argument into the sleep function.
It also accepts a floating-point number as an input to have a more accurate sleep time or have a halt in the present execution thread.
The syntax for sleep function in Python time module is represented as shown below: –
Syntax:
Time.sleep(10)
The application of sleep function extends to several programming situations. One situation could be database commit, and another situation could be to wait for the file to finish.
The following code displays the sleep function of time module as shown below: –
Python code:
import time start_time_Guru99 = time.time() print("Time elapsed after some level wait...") print("The start time is", start_time_Guru99) print("The start time in human form", time.ctime(start_time_Guru99)) print("Before calling the method") time.sleep(1) time.sleep(10.5) print("after calling the sleep method") end_time_Guru99 = time.time() print(time.ctime(time.time())) print("The end time is", end_time_Guru99) print("The start time in human form", time.ctime(end_time_Guru99)) print("Time elapsed in this example code: ", end_time_Guru99 - start_time_Guru99)
Output:
Time elapsed after some level of wait... The start time is 1643046760.163671 The start time in the human form Mon Jan 24 17:52:40 2022 Before calling the method after calling the sleep method Mon Jan 24 17:52:51 2022 The end time is 1643046771.6733172 The start time in human form Mon Jan 24 17:52:51 2022 Time elapsed in this example code: 11.50964617729187
How to use Python time. Python time.gmtime()?
The gmtime() function in time module of Python takes an argument in terms of a number of seconds that is passed post the completion of epoch. The function returns output in the form of struct_time or UTC format. Here, UTC means universal time coordinated.
The syntax of gmtime() function is as follows: –
Syntax
time.gmtime(argument)
The following code is an example on how to use gmtime() function of Python as shown below: –
Python code:
import time result = time.gmtime(time.time()) print("The structure format of time is as follows") print(result) print("Year in structured format is represented as", result.tm_year) print("Hour in structured format is represented as", result.tm_hour)
Output:
The structure format of time is as follows time.struct_time(tm_year=2022, tm_mon=1, tm_mday=25, tm_hour=5, tm_min=48, tm_sec=27, tm_wday=1, tm_yday=25, tm_isdst=0) • Year in structured format is represented as 2022 • Hour in structured format is represented as 5
In the above code, the time function of the time module of Python is passed as an argument into the gmtime function of, which provides the end-user with the structured time format as an output.
How to use time.clock() function in Python?
The clock function in the time module of Python returns processing time as an output to the end-user. The main role of the function is to facilitate benchmarking and performance testing. The function provides the accurate or correct time taken by the Python code segment to complete its execution. The output provided by the function is the more accurate result than the other time-related functions.
The syntax for clock function is represented as shown below: –
Syntax:
time.clock()
Since the clock function is deprecated from Python version 3, the programmer can use time.perf_counter() function and time.process_time() function to assess the performance of the code developed by them.
How to use Function time.Thread_time in Python?
The thread_time function of the time module of Python gives the sum of system time and the CPU time for an active running thread. The function returns a floating-point value, and it does not include the time the code spends or takes when the sleep function is invoked. The function is utilized for specific threads only, and it can be used to record the time difference between two reference points.
The following example shows the application of the thread time function.
Python code:
import time import threading start_time1 = None end_time1 = None def threadexample1(): global start_time1, end_time1 start_time1 = time.thread_time() ExecutionLoop = 0 while ExecutionLoop & lt; 10000000: pass ExecutionLoop += 1 end_time1 = time.thread_time() threadTarget = threading.Thread(target = threadexample1, args = ()) threadTarget.start() threadTarget.join() print("The time spent in thread is {}".format(end_time1 - start_time1))
Output:
The time spent in thread is 1.029076937
The above code returns the time difference between the start and ends time spent in the thread named as thread example, and it returned the difference as 1.029 respectively.
How to use function time.Process_time() in Python?
The process time function in the time module of the Python returns the reference of time in terms of fractional seconds and floating-point value. The function gives the sum of system time and the current progress of CPU time.
This function displays a similar attribute as present in the thread_time function of not including the time spent in time.sleep function(). It also creates a reference that is based on a specific process. Due to this attribute, the time difference between two consecutive references is undertaken.
The following code helps in describing the usage of the process time function as shown below: –
Python code:
from time import process_time, sleep g = 20 start_time = process_time() & nbsp; for i in range(g): print(i) end_time = process_time() print("The end time and start time are as follows:", end_time, start_time) print("Elapsed time in seconds:", end_time - start_time)
Output:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 The end time and start time are as follows: 0.059007366 0.058789647 Elapsed time in seconds: 0.00021771899999999816
The above code records the time between the start and the end time. Between the start and end time difference, the execution of the process code gets recorded as a process and becomes part of elapsed time.
How to use function time.Perf_counter() in Python?
The Perf_counter function provides a high-precision or accurate time value. The perf_counter function delivers an accurate or precise time between two established reference points that is a start and end time.
The following code helps in describing the performance counter as shown below: –
Python code:
from time import perf_counter, sleep g = 6 start_time = perf_counter() & nbsp; print("the timer started at", start_time) & nbsp; & nbsp; for i in range(g): sleep(1) end_time = perf_counter() print("the timer ended at", end_time) print("Time elapsed in seconds as recorded by performance counter:", end_time - start_time)
Output:
the timer started at 6967694.757714532 the timer ended at 6967700.803981042 Time elapsed in seconds as recorded by performance counter: 6.046266509220004.
In the above code, a simple loop is applied to validate the time taken by the function performance counter to record time between the start and the end time. As the output showcase, the timer delivers a high precision output.
How to check the time zone in Python?
In Python, there are two properties under the time function of the time module that provides the end-user with information pertaining to the time zone.
- The first one is the time.timezone property, and the second one is time.tzname.
- The time.timezone returns the offset of non-DST or the local time zone under UTC format.
- The time.tzname returns a tuple that comprises DST and non-DST or local time zones.
The syntax for time.timezone is shown as follows: –
Syntax:
time.timezone
The syntax for time.tzname is shown as follows: –
Syntax:
time.tzname
The following code would showcase how to use time zone properties in Python: –
Python code:
import time print("time zone in non-DST format is:",time.timezone) print("time zone in DST and non-DST format is:",time.tzname)
Output:
time zone in non-DST format is: 0 time zone in DST and non-DST format is: ('UTC', 'UTC')
How to develop a basic Python timer?
Python timer is defined as a library or class that helps in the management of the time complexity of the code. A timer enables to create a system in the existing code snippet and check how much time an existing code takes to finish the task.
Python timers such as performance counter, process timer, and using time function as described above can be used to assess the performance of existing codes in terms of execution standpoint.
Summary
Other Important Python Timer Modules:
Python provides several modules that help in time management as well as it helps in the analysis of code. The other modules that could be used in time and effort analysis for codes that are written in Python are as follows:
- Term down: This is a Python timer of advanced nature, and it utilizes different ASCII characters. They are used to produce simple countdown timers.
- MobTimer: Python: This is another GUI-based timer in Python that, when launched, provides the end-user full-screen timers with multiple options.
- Ctimer: This is a timer module in Python that provides precision up to nanoseconds. It utilizes the C language APIs to record the time accurately.