Stopwatch class for Java

Question

Which Java class should you use for time performance measurements?

(One could use any date/time class, but the reason I'm asking is in .Net there's a designated Stopwatch class for this purpose)

Answer 1

java.lang.System.nanoTime()

Or you can use the StopWatch that is supplied in apache commons. This class uses java.lang.System.currentTimeMillis()

http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/time/StopWatch.html

Answer 2

You can try System.currentTimeMillis(), but also there a good profiling options under some well known IDEs, such as eclipse and netbeans. Also, away from the IDE, you can try standalone profilers in your performance measurements tasks. I think that by using profilers you will get better results than using System.currentTimeMillis().

Answer 3

The Spring Framework has an excellent StopWatch class:

StopWatch stopWatch = new StopWatch("My Stop Watch");

stopWatch.start("initializing");
Thread.sleep(2000); // simulated work
stopWatch.stop();

stopWatch.start("processing");
Thread.sleep(5000); // simulated work
stopWatch.stop();

stopWatch.start("finalizing");
Thread.sleep(3000); // simulated work
stopWatch.stop();

System.out.println(stopWatch.prettyPrint());

This produces:

    StopWatch 'My Stop Watch': running time (millis) = 10000
    -----------------------------------------
    ms     %     Task name
    -----------------------------------------
    02000  020%  initializing
    05000  050%  processing
    03000  030%  finalizing

Answer 4

StopWatch classes went out with the indians and are generally only used today by captain caveman types, ;-).

You should think in terms of resources and meters (multiples).

http://www.jinspired.com/products/jxinsight/meteringthecloud.html

Answer 5

If you just want to measure it, use a stopwatch class, or maybe just a stopwatch.

If you want to make it faster, consider this.