Contents

gettime()

Usage:

gettime(), gettime(quiet:T), or gettime(keep:T [,quiet:F])
gettime(interval:T), gettime(interval:T,quiet:T), or
   gettime(interval:T,keep:T [,quiet:F])

Keywords: general

gettime() prints the time in seconds since the start of the run.

gettime(interval:T) prints the time in seconds since the last time
gettime() was used (since the start if this is the first usage).

gettime(quiet:T) and gettime(interval:T, quiet:T) do nothing but save
the current time for the next time gettime(interval:T) is used.

gettime(keep:T [, quiet:F]) returns the time since start as a REAL
scalar.  It prints nothing unless quiet:F is an argument.

gettime(interval:T, keep:T [, quiet:F]) returns the time since last use
as a REAL scalar.  It prints nothing unless quiet:F is an argument.

You can create a macro that will print the elapsed time of an action by
  Cmd> timeit <- macro("gettime(quiet:T);{$0};gettime(interval:T)")
Then, for example,
  Cmd> timeit(x <- rnorm(1000);stuff <- describe(x))
will print time spent generating x and computing descriptive statistics.
See also topics macro(), 'macros'.

On most computers, gettime() returns the actual time elapsed as might be
measured with a stop watch.  On a few computers, the time is the amount
of central processor time used.  This will generally be less, often much
less than the actual elapsed time.

Examples:
  Cmd> gettime()
  Time since start is 377.65 seconds.

  Cmd> gettime(quiet:T);mymacro(x,y);gettime(interval:T)
  Elapsed time is 3.6718 seconds

  Cmd> gettime(quiet:T);mymacro(x,y);gettime(interval:T,keep:T)
  (1)        3.699

  Cmd> gettime(quiet:T);mymacro(x,y);gettime(interval:T,keep:T,quiet:F)
  Elapsed time is 3.6523 seconds
  (1)       3.6523