Measure execution time

C# Code Snippets

C# Source Code Bank System namespace

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This C# code snippet measures a time interval as you would measure the execution time of a task.

DateTime startTime = DateTime.Now;
Console.WriteLine ("Started: {0}", startTime);
 
// Execute the task to be timed
for (int i=1; i < 100000; i++){}   
  
DateTime stopTime = DateTime.Now;
Console.WriteLine ("Stopped: {0}", stopTime);
 
TimeSpan elapsedTime = stopTime - startTime;
Console.WriteLine ("Elapsed: {0}", elapsedTime);
Console.WriteLine ("in hours       :" + elapsedTime.TotalHours);
Console.WriteLine ("in minutes     :" + elapsedTime.TotalMinutes);
Console.WriteLine ("in seconds     :" + elapsedTime.TotalSeconds);
Console.WriteLine ("in milliseconds:" + elapsedTime.TotalMilliseconds);

In C# 2.0, the same thing can be done as follows:

Stopwatch watch = new Stopwatch();
 
watch.Start();
for (int i = 1; i < 1000000; i++) { }   // Execute the task to be timed
watch.Stop();
 
Console.WriteLine("Elapsed: {0}",watch.Elapsed);
Console.WriteLine("In milliseconds: {0}",watch.ElapsedMilliseconds);
Console.WriteLine("In timer ticks: {0}",watch.ElapsedTicks);

For DateTime formatting options, refer to Format the date and time.