%time and %timeit won't work with multiple line function calls

[peter-ch]

This screenshot explains it best. http://i.imgur.com/omp3mSW.png

I'm using IPython 2.1 on Python 2.7

[minrk]

You can use %%time or %%timeit cell magics for multi-line blocks.

[peter-ch]

Thanks. I tried %%timeit already, but the call was on the same line and there was still an error. I tried moving it down now and it works. But it says "SyntaxError: invalid syntax" if a comment line precedes the one with %%timeit.

[takluyver]

Yes, a cell magic has to be the only thing in that cell.

You can also use explicit line continuations to do it with a line magic:

%timeit f(1, \
          2, \
          3)

[suberlak]

I got that error because there were two spaces after %%time (!). I don't know if this is a known issue (?)