How to use clock() in C++

Question

How do I call clock() in C++?

For example, I want to test how much time a linear search takes to find a given element in an array.

Answer 1

clock() returns the number of clock ticks since your program started. There is a related constant, CLOCKS_PER_SEC, which tells you how many clock ticks occur in one second. Thus, you can test any operation like this:

clock_t startTime = clock();
doSomeOperation();
clock_t endTime = clock();
clock_t clockTicksTaken = endTime - startTime;
double timeInSeconds = clockTicksTaken / (double) CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

Answer 2

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdio>
#include <ctime>

int main() {
    std::clock_t start;
    double duration;

    start = std::clock();

    /* Your algorithm here */

    duration = ( std::clock() - start ) / (double) CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

    std::cout<<"printf: "<< duration <<'\n';
}