How do I measure the execution time of JavaScript code with callbacks?

Question

I have a piece of JavaScript code that I am executing using the node.js interpreter.

for(var i = 1; i <         


        

Answer 1

There is a method that is designed for this. Check out process.hrtime(); .

So, I basically put this at the top of my app.

var start = process.hrtime();

var elapsed_time = function(note){
    var precision = 3; // 3 decimal places
    var elapsed = process.hrtime(start)[1] / 1000000; // divide by a million to get nano to milli
    console.log(process.hrtime(start)[0] + " s, " + elapsed.toFixed(precision) + " ms - " + note); // print message + time
    start = process.hrtime(); // reset the timer
}

Then I use it to see how long functions take. Here's a basic example that prints the contents of a text file called "output.txt":

var debug = true;
http.createServer(function(request, response) {

    if(debug) console.log("----------------------------------");
    if(debug) elapsed_time("recieved request");

    var send_html = function(err, contents) {
        if(debug) elapsed_time("start send_html()");
        response.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html' } );
        response.end(contents);
        if(debug) elapsed_time("end send_html()");
    }

    if(debug) elapsed_time("start readFile()");
    fs.readFile('output.txt', send_html);
    if(debug) elapsed_time("end readFile()");

}).listen(8080);

Here's a quick test you can run in a terminal (BASH shell):

for i in {1..100}; do echo $i; curl http://localhost:8080/; done