The StopWatch class in .NET Framework is used to measure the elapsed time accurately.
The class provides Start, Stop, StartNew, Reset, Restart and GetTimestamp methods.
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
namespace StopWatchSample
{
class OperationsTimer
{
public static void Main()
{
DisplayTimerProperties();
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Press the Enter key to begin:");
Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine();
TimeOperations();
}
public static void DisplayTimerProperties()
{
//
Display the timer frequency and resolution.
if (Stopwatch.IsHighResolution)
{
Console.WriteLine("Operations timed using the system's high-resolution
performance counter.");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Operations timed using the DateTime class.");
}
long frequency = Stopwatch.Frequency;
Console.WriteLine(" Timer frequency in
ticks per second = {0}",
frequency);
long nanosecPerTick = (1000L*1000L*1000L) / frequency;
Console.WriteLine(" Timer is accurate
within {0} nanoseconds",
nanosecPerTick);
}
private static void TimeOperations()
{
long nanosecPerTick = (1000L*1000L*1000L) / Stopwatch.Frequency;
const long numIterations = 10000;
//
Define the operation title names.
String [] operationNames = {"Operation: Int32.Parse(\"0\")",
"Operation: Int32.TryParse(\"0\")",
"Operation: Int32.Parse(\"a\")",
"Operation: Int32.TryParse(\"a\")"};
//
Time four different implementations for parsing
//
an integer from a string.
for (int operation = 0; operation <= 3; operation++)
{
// Define variables for operation statistics.
long numTicks = 0;
long numRollovers = 0;
long maxTicks = 0;
long minTicks =
Int64.MaxValue;
int indexFastest = -1;
int indexSlowest = -1;
long milliSec = 0;
Stopwatch time10kOperations =
Stopwatch.StartNew();
// Run the current operation 10001 times.
// The first execution time will be tossed
// out, since it can skew the average time.
for (int i=0;
i<=numIterations; i++)
{
long ticksThisTime = 0;
int inputNum;
Stopwatch timePerParse;
switch (operation)
{
case 0:
// Parse a valid integer using
// a try-catch statement.
// Start a new stopwatch timer.
timePerParse =
Stopwatch.StartNew();
try
{
inputNum =
Int32.Parse("0");
}
catch (FormatException)
{
inputNum = 0;
}
// Stop the timer, and save the
//
elapsed ticks for the operation.
timePerParse.Stop();
ticksThisTime =
timePerParse.ElapsedTicks;
break;
case 1:
//
Parse a valid integer using
// the TryParse statement.
// Start a new stopwatch timer.
timePerParse =
Stopwatch.StartNew();
if (!Int32.TryParse("0", out inputNum))
{
inputNum = 0;
}
// Stop the timer, and save the
// elapsed ticks for the operation.
timePerParse.Stop();
ticksThisTime =
timePerParse.ElapsedTicks;
break;
case 2:
// Parse an invalid value using
// a try-catch statement.
// Start a new stopwatch timer.
timePerParse =
Stopwatch.StartNew();
try
{
inputNum = Int32.Parse("a");
}
catch (FormatException)
{
inputNum = 0;
}
//
Stop the timer, and save the
// elapsed ticks for the operation.
timePerParse.Stop();
ticksThisTime =
timePerParse.ElapsedTicks;
break;
case 3:
// Parse an invalid value using
// the TryParse statement.
// Start a new stopwatch timer.
timePerParse =
Stopwatch.StartNew();
if (!Int32.TryParse("a", out inputNum))
{
inputNum = 0;
}
// Stop the timer, and save the
// elapsed ticks for the operation.
timePerParse.Stop();
ticksThisTime =
timePerParse.ElapsedTicks;
break;
default:
break;
}
// Skip over the time for the first operation,
// just in case it caused a one-time
// performance hit.
if (i == 0)
{
time10kOperations.Reset();
time10kOperations.Start();
}
else
{
// Update operation statistics
// for iterations 1-10001.
if (maxTicks <
ticksThisTime)
{
indexSlowest = i;
maxTicks =
ticksThisTime;
}
if (minTicks >
ticksThisTime)
{
indexFastest = i;
minTicks =
ticksThisTime;
}
numTicks += ticksThisTime;
if (numTicks <
ticksThisTime)
{
// Keep track of rollovers.
numRollovers ++;
}
}
}
// Display the statistics for 10000 iterations.
time10kOperations.Stop();
milliSec =
time10kOperations.ElapsedMilliseconds;
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("{0} Summary:",
operationNames[operation]);
Console.WriteLine(" Slowest time: #{0}/{1} = {2} ticks",
indexSlowest,
numIterations, maxTicks);
Console.WriteLine(" Fastest time: #{0}/{1} = {2} ticks",
indexFastest,
numIterations, minTicks);
Console.WriteLine(" Average time: {0} ticks = {1} nanoseconds",
numTicks / numIterations,
(numTicks * nanosecPerTick)
/ numIterations );
Console.WriteLine(" Total time looping
through {0} operations: {1} milliseconds",
numIterations, milliSec);
}
}
}
}