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

#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';
}

Answer 2

An alternative solution, which is portable and with higher precision, available since C++11, is to use std::chrono.

Here is an example:

#include <iostream>
#include <chrono>
typedef std::chrono::high_resolution_clock Clock;

int main()
{
    auto t1 = Clock::now();
    auto t2 = Clock::now();
    std::cout << "Delta t2-t1: " 
              << std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::nanoseconds>(t2 - t1).count()
              << " nanoseconds" << std::endl;
}

Running this on ideone.com gave me:

Delta t2-t1: 282 nanoseconds

Answer 3

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 4

On Windows at least, the only practically accurate measurement mechanism is QueryPerformanceCounter (QPC). std::chrono is implemented using it (since VS2015, if you use that), but it is not accurate to the same degree as using QueryPerformanceCounter directly. In particular it's claim to report at 1 nanosecond granularity is absolutely not correct. So, if you're measuring something that takes a very short amount of time (and your case might just be such a case), then you should use QPC, or the equivalent for your OS. I came up against this when measuring cache latencies, and I jotted down some notes that you might find useful, here; https://github.com/jarlostensen/notesandcomments/blob/master/stdchronovsqcp.md

Answer 5

#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
#include <cstdlib> //_sleep()  --- just a function that waits a certain amount of milliseconds

using namespace std;

int main()
{

    clock_t cl;     //initializing a clock type

    cl = clock();   //starting time of clock

    _sleep(5167);   //insert code here

    cl = clock() - cl;  //end point of clock

    _sleep(1000);   //testing to see if it actually stops at the end point

    cout << cl/(double)CLOCKS_PER_SEC << endl;  //prints the determined ticks per second (seconds passed)


    return 0;
}

//outputs "5.17"

Answer 6

You can measure how long your program works. The following functions help measure the CPU time since the start of the program:

• C++ (double)clock() / CLOCKS_PER_SEC with ctime included.
• Python time.clock() returns floating-point value in seconds.
• Java System.nanoTime() returns long value in nanoseconds.

My reference: algorithms toolbox week 1 course part of data structures and algorithms specialization by University of California San Diego & National Research University Higher School of Economics

So you can add this line of code after your algorithm:

cout << (double)clock() / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

Expected Output: the output representing the number of clock ticks per second

Answer 7

Probably you might be interested in timer like this : H : M : S . Msec.

the code in Linux OS:

#include <iostream>
#include <unistd.h>

using namespace std;
void newline(); 

int main() {

int msec = 0;
int sec = 0;
int min = 0;
int hr = 0;


//cout << "Press any key to start:";
//char start = _gtech();

for (;;)
{
        newline();
                if(msec == 1000)
                {
                        ++sec;
                        msec = 0;
                }
                if(sec == 60)
                {
                        ++min;
                        sec = 0; 
                }
                if(min == 60)
                {
                        ++hr;
                        min = 0;
                }
        cout << hr << " : " << min << " : " << sec << " . " << msec << endl;
        ++msec;
        usleep(100000); 

}

    return 0;
}

void newline()
{
        cout << "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n";
}