measuring a function time

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:42:58 +0200, Matteo Landi wrote:

> This should be enough
> 
>>>>import time
>>>>tic = time.time()
>>>>function()
>>>>toc = time.time()
>>>>print toc - tic

You're typing that in the interactive interpreter, which means the timer 
is counting the seconds while you're typing subsequent commands. At the 
very least, you need to put that code into a function.

More importantly, the above technique is acceptable if function() is very 
long-running (multiple seconds, at least). If it is quick, or a code-
snippet, the time you measure will be dominated by random chance.

The best way to time small code snippets and fast functions is with the 
timeit module.



-- 
Steven