What is the Python equivalent of Matlab's tic and toc functions? What is the Python equivalent of Matlab's tic and toc functions? python python

What is the Python equivalent of Matlab's tic and toc functions?


Apart from timeit which ThiefMaster mentioned, a simple way to do it is just (after importing time):

t = time.time()# do stuffelapsed = time.time() - t

I have a helper class I like to use:

class Timer(object):    def __init__(self, name=None):        self.name = name    def __enter__(self):        self.tstart = time.time()    def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):        if self.name:            print('[%s]' % self.name,)        print('Elapsed: %s' % (time.time() - self.tstart))

It can be used as a context manager:

with Timer('foo_stuff'):   # do some foo   # do some stuff

Sometimes I find this technique more convenient than timeit - it all depends on what you want to measure.


I had the same question when I migrated to python from Matlab. With the help of this thread I was able to construct an exact analog of the Matlab tic() and toc() functions. Simply insert the following code at the top of your script.

import timedef TicTocGenerator():    # Generator that returns time differences    ti = 0           # initial time    tf = time.time() # final time    while True:        ti = tf        tf = time.time()        yield tf-ti # returns the time differenceTicToc = TicTocGenerator() # create an instance of the TicTocGen generator# This will be the main function through which we define both tic() and toc()def toc(tempBool=True):    # Prints the time difference yielded by generator instance TicToc    tempTimeInterval = next(TicToc)    if tempBool:        print( "Elapsed time: %f seconds.\n" %tempTimeInterval )def tic():    # Records a time in TicToc, marks the beginning of a time interval    toc(False)

That's it! Now we are ready to fully use tic() and toc() just as in Matlab. For example

tic()time.sleep(5)toc() # returns "Elapsed time: 5.00 seconds."

Actually, this is more versatile than the built-in Matlab functions. Here, you could create another instance of the TicTocGenerator to keep track of multiple operations, or just to time things differently. For instance, while timing a script, we can now time each piece of the script seperately, as well as the entire script. (I will provide a concrete example)

TicToc2 = TicTocGenerator() # create another instance of the TicTocGen generatordef toc2(tempBool=True):    # Prints the time difference yielded by generator instance TicToc2    tempTimeInterval = next(TicToc2)    if tempBool:    print( "Elapsed time 2: %f seconds.\n" %tempTimeInterval )def tic2():    # Records a time in TicToc2, marks the beginning of a time interval    toc2(False)

Now you should be able to time two separate things: In the following example, we time the total script and parts of a script separately.

tic()time.sleep(5)tic2()time.sleep(3)toc2() # returns "Elapsed time 2: 5.00 seconds."toc() # returns "Elapsed time: 8.00 seconds."

Actually, you do not even need to use tic() each time. If you have a series of commands that you want to time, then you can write

tic()time.sleep(1)toc() # returns "Elapsed time: 1.00 seconds."time.sleep(2)toc() # returns "Elapsed time: 2.00 seconds."time.sleep(3)toc() # returns "Elapsed time: 3.00 seconds."# and so on...

I hope that this is helpful.


The absolute best analog of tic and toc would be to simply define them in python.

def tic():    #Homemade version of matlab tic and toc functions    import time    global startTime_for_tictoc    startTime_for_tictoc = time.time()def toc():    import time    if 'startTime_for_tictoc' in globals():        print "Elapsed time is " + str(time.time() - startTime_for_tictoc) + " seconds."    else:        print "Toc: start time not set"

Then you can use them as:

tic()# do stufftoc()