How to run a background timer in Python

Question

I\'m currently making a math game where the user has 60 seconds to answer as many questions as possible. As of now, I have everything working except for the timer which shou

Answer 1

Use time.time(), it returns the epoch time (that is, the number of seconds since January 1, 1970 UNIX Time). You can compare it to a start time to get the number of seconds:

start = time.time()
while time.time() - start < 60:
    # stuff

You can have a timer pull you out of your code at any point (even if the user is inputting info) with signals but it is a little more complicated. One way is to use the signal library:

import signal
def timeout_handler(signal, frame):
    raise Exception('Time is up!')
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout_handler)

this defines a function that raises an exception and is called when the timeout occurs. Now you can put your while loop in a try catch block and set the timer:

signal.alarm.timeout(60)
try:
    while lives > 0
        # stuff
except:
    # print score