How do I create a generic routine to time methods?

Question

I need to measure the execution of many different methods within the context of an application.

.NET of course has the Stopwatch class which allows one to easily time a section of code with it's .Start() and .Stop() methods.

However, use of the Stopwatch class in its normal manner requires me to decorate every method with an instance of a Stopwatch object and calls to it's .Start() and .Stop() methods.

I need to use Stopwatch functionality on literally hundreds of methods and do not want to pollute every method with this code. I would also like to have the ability to turn timing on and off.

Is there a simple way I can implement a generic timing solution within my own code? If so, how? Code profilers do it, so I think it must be possible.

Why not just use a free profiler http://smartbear.com/products/free-tools/aqtime-standard ? — hatchet - done with SOverflow, Sep 13 '12 at 19:04
The answers on this question might help:http://stackoverflow.com/q/1507405/ — H H, Sep 13 '12 at 19:26
Something else to consider is that Stopwatch measures elapsed clock time, not CPU time. See this for measuring CPU time http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/31152/ExecutionStopwatch — hatchet - done with SOverflow, Sep 13 '12 at 19:28

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 08 '17 at 01:13

10

Just a thought. declare a method as below

public static long Measure(Action action)
{
    Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    action();
    return sw.ElapsedMilliseconds;
}

and use as

var duration = Measure(() => MyMethod(param1));

edited Feb 08 '17 at 01:13

st0le

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answered Sep 13 '12 at 18:56

L.B

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+1. By the way, the first two lines can be condensed into `Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew()` – Eric Andres Sep 13 '12 at 20:17

Peter Davidsen · Answer 2 · 2012-09-13T19:34:40.060

You could also look into AOP and dynamically create a wrapper for Timing methods (will only work on non-static public methods though).

If you're using IoC you will basically just need to register the types with a decorator, this can of course be customized and turned on and off if needed, or even on specific methods.

I've used Castle:DynamicProxy before to achieve just this (for both timing and error logging).

Edit: an example (from an old version of castle:dynamic proxy)

TimerInterceptor : IInterceptor
{
    public void Intercept(IInvocation invocation)
    {
        Stopwatch watch = new Stopwatch();
        watch.Start();
        invocation.Proceed();
        watch.Stop();
        //here you have the value which could be used to log (which I assume you want)
    }
}

new ProxyGenerator().CreateInterfaceProxyWithTarget<IMyInterface>(implementedObject, new TimerInterceptor());

How do I create a generic routine to time methods?

2 Answers2

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