How do I measure a time interval in C?

Question

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)

Answer 1

Take a lok at this one however if you want precise calculation I think you have to use specific libraries on your operating system.

Answer 2

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

---

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 <iostream>
#include <windows.h>                // for Windows APIs
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    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;
    cout << elapsedTime << " ms.\n";

    return 0;
}

Linux, Unix, and Mac

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

Example:

#include <iostream>
#include <sys/time.h>                // for gettimeofday()
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    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
    cout << elapsedTime << " ms.\n";

    return 0;
}

---

Note that the above examples need to be compiled with C++, which mingw supports.

Answer 3

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;

Answer 4

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).

Answer 5

Linux:

clock_gettime(CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID, &start);

// ... stuff ... //

clock_gettime(CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID, &end);

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

Answer 6

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);
    }
  }
}