pytictoc contains a class TicToc which replicates the functionality of MATLAB's tic and toc for easily timing sections of code. Under the hood, pytictoc uses the default_timer function from Python's timeit module.

INSTALLATION

pytictoc can be installed and updated via conda or pip.

pip :

pip install pytictoc
pip install pytictoc --upgrade

conda :

conda install pytictoc -c ecf
conda update pytictoc -c ecf

USAGE

Basic usage: :

>> from pytictoc import TicToc
>> t = TicToc() #create instance of class

>> t.tic() #Start timer
>> t.toc() #Time elapsed since t.tic()
Elapsed time is 2.612231 seconds.

A string passed to the toc method changes the printed message. This can be useful to differentiate timing of different sections in the same script. :

>> t.toc('Section 1 took')
Section 1 took 16.494467 seconds.

An optional keyword argument restarts the timer (equivalent to t.tic()) after reporting the time elapsed. :

>> t.toc(restart=True)
Elapsed time is 36.986837 seconds.
>>t.toc()
Elapsed time is 2.393425 seconds.

If you want to return the time elapsed to a variable rather than printing it, use the tocvalue method. :

>>spam = t.tocvalue()
>>spam
20.156261717544602

The TicToc class can be used within a context manager as an alternative way to time a section of code. The time taken to run the code inside the with statement will be reported on exit. :

>>with TicToc():
>>    spam = [x+1 for x in range(10000)]
Elapsed time is 0.002343 seconds.

Determining and setting the timer

pytictoc uses timeit.default_timer to time code. On Python 3.3 and later, this is an alias for time.perf_counter. On earlier versions of Python it is an alias for the most precise timer for a given system.

To see which function is being used: :

>>import pytictoc
>>pytictoc.default_timer
<function time.perf_counter>

You can change the timer by simple assignment. :

>>import time
>>pytictoc.default_timer = time.clock
>>pytictoc.default_timer
<function time.clock>