How do I measure a time interval in C?

C Problem Overview

I would like to measure time in C, and I am having a tough time figuring it out, all I want is something like this:

start a timer
run a method
stop the timer
report the time taken (at least to micro accuracy)

Any help would be appreciated.

(I am compiling in windows using mingw)

C Solutions

Solution 1 - C

High resolution timers that provide a resolution of 1 microsecond are system-specific, so you will have to use different methods to achieve this on different OS platforms. You may be interested in checking out the following article, which implements a cross-platform C++ timer class based on the functions described below:

[Song Ho Ahn - High Resolution Timer][1]

Windows

The Windows API provides extremely high resolution timer functions: QueryPerformanceCounter(), which returns the current elapsed ticks, and QueryPerformanceFrequency(), which returns the number of ticks per second.

Example:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>                // for Windows APIs

int main(void)
{
    LARGE_INTEGER frequency;        // ticks per second
    LARGE_INTEGER t1, t2;           // ticks
    double elapsedTime;

    // get ticks per second
    QueryPerformanceFrequency(&frequency);

    // start timer
    QueryPerformanceCounter(&t1);

    // do something
    // ...

    // stop timer
    QueryPerformanceCounter(&t2);

    // compute and print the elapsed time in millisec
    elapsedTime = (t2.QuadPart - t1.QuadPart) * 1000.0 / frequency.QuadPart;
    printf("%f ms.\n", elapsedTime);
}

Linux, Unix, and Mac

For Unix or Linux based system, you can use gettimeofday(). This function is declared in "sys/time.h".

Example:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/time.h>                // for gettimeofday()

int main(void)
{
    struct timeval t1, t2;
    double elapsedTime;

    // start timer
    gettimeofday(&t1, NULL);

    // do something
    // ...

    // stop timer
    gettimeofday(&t2, NULL);

    // compute and print the elapsed time in millisec
    elapsedTime = (t2.tv_sec - t1.tv_sec) * 1000.0;      // sec to ms
    elapsedTime += (t2.tv_usec - t1.tv_usec) / 1000.0;   // us to ms
    printf("%f ms.\n", elapsedTime);
}

Solution 2 - C

On Linux you can use clock_gettime():

clock_gettime(CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID, &start); // get initial time-stamp

// ... do stuff ... //

clock_gettime(CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID, &end);   // get final time-stamp

double t_ns = (double)(end.tv_sec - start.tv_sec) * 1.0e9 +
              (double)(end.tv_nsec - start.tv_nsec);
                                                 // subtract time-stamps and
                                                 // multiply to get elapsed
                                                 // time in ns

Solution 3 - C

Here's a header file I wrote to do some simple performance profiling (using manual timers):

#ifndef __ZENTIMER_H__
#define __ZENTIMER_H__

#ifdef ENABLE_ZENTIMER

#include <stdio.h>
#ifdef WIN32
#include <windows.h>
#else
#include <sys/time.h>
#endif
#ifdef HAVE_STDINT_H
#include <stdint.h>
#elif HAVE_INTTYPES_H
#include <inttypes.h>
#else
typedef unsigned char uint8_t;
typedef unsigned long int uint32_t;
typedef unsigned long long uint64_t;
#endif

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#pragma }
#endif /* __cplusplus */

#define ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC 1000000

/* ztime_t represents usec */
typedef uint64_t ztime_t;

#ifdef WIN32
static uint64_t ztimer_freq = 0;
#endif

static void
ztime (ztime_t *ztimep)
{
#ifdef WIN32
	QueryPerformanceCounter ((LARGE_INTEGER *) ztimep);
#else
	struct timeval tv;
	
	gettimeofday (&tv, NULL);
	
	*ztimep = ((uint64_t) tv.tv_sec * ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC) + tv.tv_usec;
#endif
}

enum {
	ZTIMER_INACTIVE = 0,
	ZTIMER_ACTIVE   = (1 << 0),
	ZTIMER_PAUSED   = (1 << 1),
};

typedef struct {
	ztime_t start;
	ztime_t stop;
	int state;
} ztimer_t;

#define ZTIMER_INITIALIZER { 0, 0, 0 }

/* default timer */
static ztimer_t __ztimer = ZTIMER_INITIALIZER;

static void
ZenTimerStart (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
	ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
	
	ztimer->state = ZTIMER_ACTIVE;
	ztime (&ztimer->start);
}

static void
ZenTimerStop (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
	ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
	
	ztime (&ztimer->stop);
	ztimer->state = ZTIMER_INACTIVE;
}

static void
ZenTimerPause (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
	ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
	
	ztime (&ztimer->stop);
	ztimer->state |= ZTIMER_PAUSED;
}

static void
ZenTimerResume (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
	ztime_t now, delta;
	
	ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
	
	/* unpause */
	ztimer->state &= ~ZTIMER_PAUSED;
	
	ztime (&now);
	
	/* calculate time since paused */
	delta = now - ztimer->stop;
	
	/* adjust start time to account for time elapsed since paused */
	ztimer->start += delta;
}

static double
ZenTimerElapsed (ztimer_t *ztimer, uint64_t *usec)
{
#ifdef WIN32
	static uint64_t freq = 0;
	ztime_t delta, stop;
	
	if (freq == 0)
		QueryPerformanceFrequency ((LARGE_INTEGER *) &freq);
#else
#define freq ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC
	ztime_t delta, stop;
#endif
	
	ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
	
	if (ztimer->state != ZTIMER_ACTIVE)
		stop = ztimer->stop;
	else
		ztime (&stop);
	
	delta = stop - ztimer->start;
	
	if (usec != NULL)
		*usec = (uint64_t) (delta * ((double) ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC / (double) freq));
	
	return (double) delta / (double) freq;
}

static void
ZenTimerReport (ztimer_t *ztimer, const char *oper)
{
	fprintf (stderr, "ZenTimer: %s took %.6f seconds\n", oper, ZenTimerElapsed (ztimer, NULL));
}

#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif /* __cplusplus */

#else /* ! ENABLE_ZENTIMER */

#define ZenTimerStart(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerStop(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerPause(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerResume(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerElapsed(ztimerp, usec)
#define ZenTimerReport(ztimerp, oper)

#endif /* ENABLE_ZENTIMER */

#endif /* __ZENTIMER_H__ */

The ztime() function is the main logic you need — it gets the current time and stores it in a 64bit uint measured in microseconds. You can then later do simple math to find out the elapsed time.

The ZenTimer*() functions are just helper functions to take a pointer to a simple timer struct, ztimer_t, which records the start time and the end time. The ZenTimerPause()/ZenTimerResume() functions allow you to, well, pause and resume the timer in case you want to print out some debugging information that you don't want timed, for example.

You can find a copy of the original header file at http://www.gnome.org/~fejj/code/zentimer.h">http://www.gnome.org/~fejj/code/zentimer.h</a> in the off chance that I messed up the html escaping of <'s or something. It's licensed under MIT/X11 so feel free to copy it into any project you do.

Solution 4 - C

The following is a group of versatile C functions for timer management based on the gettimeofday() system call. All the timer properties are contained in a single ticktimer struct - the interval you want, the total running time since the timer initialization, a pointer to the desired callback you want to call, the number of times the callback was called. A callback function would look like this:

void your_timer_cb (struct ticktimer *t) {
  /* do your stuff here */
}

To initialize and start a timer, call ticktimer_init(your_timer, interval, TICKTIMER_RUN, your_timer_cb, 0).

In the main loop of your program call ticktimer_tick(your_timer) and it will decide whether the appropriate amount of time has passed to invoke the callback.

To stop a timer, just call ticktimer_ctl(your_timer, TICKTIMER_STOP).

ticktimer.h:

#ifndef __TICKTIMER_H
#define __TICKTIMER_H

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/types.h>

#define TICKTIMER_STOP         0x00
#define TICKTIMER_UNCOMPENSATE 0x00
#define TICKTIMER_RUN          0x01
#define TICKTIMER_COMPENSATE   0x02

struct ticktimer {
  u_int64_t tm_tick_interval;
  u_int64_t tm_last_ticked;
  u_int64_t tm_total;
  unsigned ticks_total;
  void (*tick)(struct ticktimer *);
  unsigned char flags;
  int id;
};

void ticktimer_init (struct ticktimer *, u_int64_t, unsigned char, void (*)(struct ticktimer *), int);
unsigned ticktimer_tick (struct ticktimer *);
void ticktimer_ctl (struct ticktimer *, unsigned char);
struct ticktimer *ticktimer_alloc (void);
void ticktimer_free (struct ticktimer *);
void ticktimer_tick_all (void);

#endif

ticktimer.c:

#include "ticktimer.h"

#define TIMER_COUNT 100

static struct ticktimer timers[TIMER_COUNT];
static struct timeval tm;

/*!
  @brief
    Initializes/sets the ticktimer struct.

  @param timer
    Pointer to ticktimer struct.
  @param interval
    Ticking interval in microseconds.
  @param flags
    Flag bitmask. Use TICKTIMER_RUN | TICKTIMER_COMPENSATE
    to start a compensating timer; TICKTIMER_RUN to start
    a normal uncompensating timer.
  @param tick
    Ticking callback function.
  @param id
    Timer ID. Useful if you want to distinguish different
    timers within the same callback function.
*/
void ticktimer_init (struct ticktimer *timer, u_int64_t interval, unsigned char flags, void (*tick)(struct ticktimer *), int id) {
  gettimeofday(&tm, NULL);
  timer->tm_tick_interval = interval;
  timer->tm_last_ticked = tm.tv_sec * 1000000 + tm.tv_usec;
  timer->tm_total = 0;
  timer->ticks_total = 0;
  timer->tick = tick;
  timer->flags = flags;
  timer->id = id;
}

/*!
  @brief 
    Checks the status of a ticktimer and performs a tick(s) if 
    necessary.

  @param timer
    Pointer to ticktimer struct.

  @return
    The number of times the timer was ticked.
*/
unsigned ticktimer_tick (struct ticktimer *timer) {
  register typeof(timer->tm_tick_interval) now;
  register typeof(timer->ticks_total) nticks, i;

  if (timer->flags & TICKTIMER_RUN) {
    gettimeofday(&tm, NULL);
    now = tm.tv_sec * 1000000 + tm.tv_usec;

    if (now >= timer->tm_last_ticked + timer->tm_tick_interval) {
      timer->tm_total += now - timer->tm_last_ticked;

      if (timer->flags & TICKTIMER_COMPENSATE) {
        nticks = (now - timer->tm_last_ticked) / timer->tm_tick_interval;
        timer->tm_last_ticked = now - ((now - timer->tm_last_ticked) % timer->tm_tick_interval);

        for (i = 0; i < nticks; i++) {
          timer->tick(timer);
          timer->ticks_total++;
          
          if (timer->tick == NULL) {
            break;
          }
        }

        return nticks;
      } else {
        timer->tm_last_ticked = now;
        timer->tick(timer);
        timer->ticks_total++;
        return 1;
      }
    }
  }

  return 0;
}

/*!
  @brief
    Controls the behaviour of a ticktimer.

  @param timer
    Pointer to ticktimer struct.
  @param flags
    Flag bitmask.
*/
inline void ticktimer_ctl (struct ticktimer *timer, unsigned char flags) {
  timer->flags = flags;
}

/*!
  @brief
    Allocates a ticktimer struct from an internal
    statically allocated list.

  @return
    Pointer to the newly allocated ticktimer struct
    or NULL when no more space is available.
*/
struct ticktimer *ticktimer_alloc (void) {
  register int i;

  for (i = 0; i < TIMER_COUNT; i++) {
    if (timers[i].tick == NULL) {
      return timers + i;
    }
  }

  return NULL;
}

/*!
  @brief
    Marks a previously allocated ticktimer struct as free.

  @param timer
    Pointer to ticktimer struct, usually returned by 
    ticktimer_alloc().
*/
inline void ticktimer_free (struct ticktimer *timer) {
  timer->tick = NULL;
}

/*!
  @brief
    Checks the status of all allocated timers from the 
    internal list and performs ticks where necessary.

  @note
    Should be called in the main loop.
*/
inline void ticktimer_tick_all (void) {
  register int i;

  for (i = 0; i < TIMER_COUNT; i++) {
    if (timers[i].tick != NULL) {
      ticktimer_tick(timers + i);
    }
  }
}

Solution 5 - C

Using the time.h library, try something like this:

long start_time, end_time, elapsed;

start_time = clock();
// Do something
end_time = clock();

elapsed = (end_time - start_time) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC * 1000;

Solution 6 - C

If your Linux system supports it, clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC) should be a high resolution timer that is unaffected by system date changes (e.g. NTP daemons).

Solution 7 - C

Great answers for GNU environments above and below...

But... what if you're not running on an OS? (or a PC for that matter, or you need to time your timer interrupts themselves?) Here's a solution that uses the x86 CPU timestamp counter directly... Not because this is good practice, or should be done, ever, when running under an OS...

Caveat: Only works on x86, with frequency scaling disabled.
Under Linux, only works on non-tickless kernels

rdtsc.c:

#include <sys/time.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

typedef unsigned long long int64;

static __inline__ int64 getticks(void)
{
     unsigned a, d;
     asm volatile("rdtsc" : "=a" (a), "=d" (d));
     return (((int64)a) | (((int64)d) << 32));
}

int main(){

     int64 tick,tick1;
     unsigned time=0,mt;

     // mt is the divisor to give microseconds

     FILE *pf;
     int i,r,l,n=0;
     char s[100];

     // time how long it takes to get the divisors, as a test 
     tick = getticks();

     // get the divisors  - todo: for max performance this can 
     // output a new binary or library with these values hardcoded 
     // for the relevant CPU - if you use the equivalent assembler for
     // that CPU
     pf = fopen("/proc/cpuinfo","r");
     do {
      r=fscanf(pf,"%s",&s[0]);
      if (r<0) {
       n=5; break;
      } else if (n==0) {
       if (strcmp("MHz",s)==0) n=1;
      } else if (n==1) {
       if (strcmp(":",s)==0) n=2;
      } else if (n==2) {
       n=3;
      };
     } while (n<3);
     fclose(pf);

     s[9]=(char)0;
     strcpy(&s[4],&s[5]);
     mt=atoi(s);

     printf("#define mt %u // (%s Hz) hardcode this for your a CPU-specific binary ;-)\n",mt,s);

     tick1 = getticks();
     time = (unsigned)((tick1-tick)/mt);
     printf("%u ms\n",time);

     // time the duration of sleep(1) - plus overheads ;-)
     tick = getticks();

     sleep(1);

     tick1 = getticks();
     time = (unsigned)((tick1-tick)/mt);
     printf("%u ms\n",time);

     return 0;
}

compile and run with

> $ gcc rdtsc.c -o rdtsc && ./rdtsc

It reads the divisor for your CPU from /proc/cpuinfo and shows how long it took to read that in microseconds, as well as how long it takes to execute sleep(1) in microseconds... Assuming the Mhz rating in /proc/cpuinfo always contains 3 decimal places :-o

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	naspinski	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - C	Daniel Vassallo	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - C	Paul R	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - C	jstedfast	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - C	Blagovest Buyukliev	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - C	Aaron	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - C	Neil	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - C	dagelf	View Answer on Stackoverflow