millisecond precision timing of functions in C - crossplatform - c

Question

Is there a way to get milliseconds precision, accurate (at least within a few ms) times in C using a cross-platform approach?
on a POSIX system I can use sys/time.h, but that is not cross-platform.
the stdlib time() function only gives second level precision

Answer 1

I haven't found a cross-platform solution to measuring time in C, per se. However, what I do is use almost identical functions for Unix and Windows. I created this gist because I always have to re-look this up every time. In short:
Unix
#include <time.h>
long diff_micro(struct timespec *start, struct timespec *end)
{
/* us */
return ((end->tv_sec * (1000000)) + (end->tv_nsec / 1000)) -
((start->tv_sec * 1000000) + (start->tv_nsec / 1000));
}
long diff_milli(struct timespec *start, struct timespec *end)
{
/* ms */
return ((end->tv_sec * 1000) + (end->tv_nsec / 1000000)) -
((start->tv_sec * 1000) + (start->tv_nsec / 1000000));
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
struct timespec start, end;
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &start);
// Activity to be timed
sleep(1000);
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &end);
printf("%ld us\n", diff_micro(&start, &end));
printf("%ld ms\n", diff_milli(&start, &end));
return 0;
}
source for Unix solution
Win32
#include <Windows.h>
long diff_micro(LARGE_INTEGER *start, LARGE_INTEGER *end)
{
LARGE_INTEGER Frequency, elapsed;
QueryPerformanceFrequency(&Frequency);
elapsed.QuadPart = end->QuadPart - start->QuadPart;
elapsed.QuadPart *= 1000000;
elapsed.QuadPart /= Frequency.QuadPart;
return elapsed.QuadPart;
}
long diff_milli(LARGE_INTEGER *start, LARGE_INTEGER *end)
{
LARGE_INTEGER Frequency, elapsed;
QueryPerformanceFrequency(&Frequency);
elapsed.QuadPart = end->QuadPart - start->QuadPart;
elapsed.QuadPart *= 1000;
elapsed.QuadPart /= Frequency.QuadPart;
return elapsed.QuadPart;
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
LARGE_INTEGER StartingTime, EndingTime;
QueryPerformanceCounter(&StartingTime);
// Activity to be timed
Sleep(1000);
QueryPerformanceCounter(&EndingTime);
printf("%ld us\n", diff_micro(&StartingTime, &EndingTime));
printf("%ld ms\n", diff_milli(&StartingTime, &EndingTime));
return 0;
}
source used for Win32 solution

Answer 2

You can try something like this:-
#include <time.h>
clock_t uptime = clock() / (CLOCKS_PER_SEC / 1000);
See this Link

Answer 3

The best way is using std::chrono
#include <chrono>
...
auto begin = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
...
auto end = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
elapsedTime = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(end - begin).count();