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Timer Function?

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Join Date: Nov 2008

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Erikmmp

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Timer Function?

Dec 4th, 2008

Hi everyone,
I am trying to make a program that times how long it runs for in seconds or milliseconds or whatever. The unit of time doesn't matter, I just need to know if C has any function I could use to do this. So, just as an example, I'm counting to 10,000 in a loop, and when it reaches 10,000 it stops and prints out the time it took to do. Would that be possible? Any links or snippets of code would be really appreciated. Thanks

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Join Date: Nov 2008

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Erikmmp

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Re: Timer Function?

Dec 4th, 2008

This is just an additional thought but could I get the system time in seconds from the Epoch? So then I could do something like this:

 Help with Code Tags 
 C Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
for(conditions)
int x, y, timetaken;
x = (get the time for right now);
...more condions...
y = (get the time for right now);
timetaken= y-x;
...rest of code...
for(conditions)
int x, y, timetaken;
x = (get the time for right now);
...more condions...
y = (get the time for right now);
timetaken= y-x;
...rest of code...

Can anyone give me some suggestions? Thanks

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Re: Timer Function?

Dec 4th, 2008

Take the initial time with time() , use inside a loop take the time again, then use difftime() to check the diffrence between the two; if it's greater than the max time, break the loop.

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Join Date: Sep 2008

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devnar

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Re: Timer Function?

Dec 5th, 2008

Here's a useful link

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Erikmmp

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Re: Timer Function?

Dec 6th, 2008

Thanks both of you for your help.
Here's the code I came up with. Its not perfect obviously but it lets the user pick a number to loop to and shows how long it takes to do that loop in seconds.

 Help with Code Tags 
 C Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
 
int main ()
{
  time_t start, endtime;
  unsigned long choice;
  unsigned long t;
  int difference;
  start = time(NULL);
  printf ("%ld seconds have passed since January 1, "
          "1970(Otherwise known as the Epoch)\n\nPlease enter the "
          "number to loop to: ", start);
  scanf("%ld", &choice);
  for(t = 0; t<choice; t++)     
        endtime=time(NULL);
  difference = difftime(endtime, start);
  printf("\n\nThe count to %ld took %d seconds!",t, 
          difference);
 
  return 0;
}
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

int main ()
{
  time_t start, endtime;
  unsigned long choice;
  unsigned long t;
  int difference;
  start = time(NULL);
  printf ("%ld seconds have passed since January 1, "
          "1970(Otherwise known as the Epoch)\n\nPlease enter the "
          "number to loop to: ", start);
  scanf("%ld", &choice);
  for(t = 0; t<choice; t++)     
        endtime=time(NULL);
  difference = difftime(endtime, start);
  printf("\n\nThe count to %ld took %d seconds!",t, 
          difference);
  
  return 0;
}