Measuring execution time of a function in C++

Question

I want to find out how much time a certain function takes in my C++ program to execute on Linux. Afterwards, I want to make a speed comparison . I saw sever

Answer 1

Here is an excellent header only class template to measure the elapsed time of a function or any code block:

#ifndef EXECUTION_TIMER_H
#define EXECUTION_TIMER_H

template
class ExecutionTimer {
public:
    using Clock = std::conditional_t;
private:
    const Clock::time_point mStart = Clock::now();

public:
    ExecutionTimer() = default;
    ~ExecutionTimer() {
        const auto end = Clock::now();
        std::ostringstream strStream;
        strStream << "Destructor Elapsed: "
                  << std::chrono::duration_cast( end - mStart ).count()
                  << std::endl;
        std::cout << strStream.str() << std::endl;
    }    

    inline void stop() {
        const auto end = Clock::now();
        std::ostringstream strStream;
        strStream << "Stop Elapsed: "
                  << std::chrono::duration_cast(end - mStart).count()
                  << std::endl;
        std::cout << strStream.str() << std::endl;
    }

}; // ExecutionTimer

#endif // EXECUTION_TIMER_H

Here are some uses of it:

int main() {
    { // empty scope to display ExecutionTimer's destructor's message
         // displayed in milliseconds
         ExecutionTimer timer;

         // function or code block here

         timer.stop();

    } 

    { // same as above
        ExecutionTimer timer;

        // code block here...

        timer.stop();
    }

    {  // same as above
       ExecutionTimer timer;

       // code block here...

       timer.stop();

    }

    {  // same as above
       ExecutionTimer timer;

       // code block here...

       timer.stop();

    }              

    return 0;
}

Since the class is a template we can specify real easily in how we want our time to be measured & displayed. This is a very handy utility class template for doing bench marking and is very easy to use.