VBA - show clock time with accuracy of less than a second

Question

Is there a way to use VBA (excel) to generate a clock time with accuracy to a tenth of a second or less?

eg:

Sub test()
    MsgBox Format(Time, \"hh:         


        

Answer 1

You can use the Windows API to get a more accurate time (including milliseconds) as follows.

Private Type SYSTEMTIME

  Year As Integer
  Month As Integer
  DayOfWeek As Integer
  Day As Integer
  Hour As Integer
  Minute As Integer
  Second As Integer
  Milliseconds As Integer

End Type

Public Declare Sub GetSystemTime Lib "kernel32" (lpSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME)

Public Function GetMilliseconds()
'' This function returns an accurate version of the milliseconds elememt of the current date/time
  Dim tSystem As SYSTEMTIME

  GetSystemTime tSystem
  GetMilliseconds = tSystem.Milliseconds

End Function

Credit goes to http://custom-designed-databases.com/wordpress/2011/get-milliseconds-or-seconds-from-system-time-with-vba/ where there is also more detailed information on getting the milliseconds from the system time in VBA.

Answer 2

The following VBA code returns the current local time as a String, including milliseconds. If you need system time, simply replace GetLocalTime by GetSystemTime.

Private Type SYSTEMTIME
  wYear          As Integer
  wMonth         As Integer
  wDayOfWeek     As Integer
  wDay           As Integer
  wHour          As Integer
  wMinute        As Integer
  wSecond        As Integer
  wMilliseconds  As Integer
End Type

Private Declare Sub GetLocalTime Lib "kernel32" (ByRef lpLocalTime As SYSTEMTIME)

Public Function NowMilli() As String
Dim tTime As SYSTEMTIME
Dim sTwo As String, sThree As String
Dim sOut As String
   sOut = "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.mmm"
   sTwo = "00": sThree = "000"
   Call GetLocalTime(tTime)
   Mid(sOut, 1, 4) = tTime.wYear
   Mid(sOut, 6, 2) = Format(tTime.wMonth, sTwo)
   Mid(sOut, 9, 2) = Format(tTime.wDay, sTwo)
   Mid(sOut, 12, 2) = Format(tTime.wHour, sTwo)
   Mid(sOut, 15, 2) = Format(tTime.wMinute, sTwo)
   Mid(sOut, 18, 2) = Format(tTime.wSecond, sTwo)
   Mid(sOut, 21, 3) = Format(tTime.wMilliseconds, sThree)
   NowMilli = sOut

End Function

Answer 3

I have noticed through some trial and error that current time is shown atleast upto 10 milliseconds if you assign a formula to a cell opposed to using the function directly in vba. I generally use the NOW() function for current time.

If my code is as follows:

sub test()
cells(1,1)=now()
end sub

then cell A1 shows time upto seconds, not milliseconds (time would be shown as 10:38:25.000)

if I use this code:

sub test()
cells(2,1).formula "=now()"
cells(1,1)=cells(2,1)
end sub

Then time is shown upto milliseconds in A1 (time would be shown as 10:38:25.851)

Answer 4

I think that Time doesn't give that information.

You can use Timer for extra accuracy.

In Microsoft Windows the Timer function returns fractional portions of a second. On the Macintosh, timer resolution is one second.

Here is an example:

MsgBox Format(Time, "hh:mm:ss:" & Right(Format(Timer, "#0.00"), 2))

Answer 5

Here is a much simpler way:

t = Evaluate("Now()")

This evaluates the current time as a worksheet function in milliseconds, rather than as a VBA function in seconds.