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QtCore.QElapsedTimer Class Reference

The QElapsedTimer class provides a fast way to calculate elapsed times. More...

Inheritance diagram for QtCore.QElapsedTimer:
Collaboration diagram for QtCore.QElapsedTimer:

Public Types

enum  ClockType {
  MachAbsoluteTime = 3, MonotonicClock = 1, PerformanceCounter = 4, SystemTime = 0,
  TickCounter = 2
}
  More...
 

Public Member Functions

override bool Equals (object o)
 
override int GetHashCode ()
 
 QElapsedTimer ()
 
 QElapsedTimer (QElapsedTimer copy)
 
virtual void CreateProxy ()
 
new long Elapsed ()
 
 
new bool HasExpired (long timeout)
 
 
new void Invalidate ()
 
 
new bool IsValid ()
 
 
new long MsecsSinceReference ()
 
 
new long MsecsTo (QElapsedTimer other)
 
 
new long NsecsElapsed ()
 
 
new long Restart ()
 
 
new long SecsTo (QElapsedTimer other)
 
 
new void Start ()
 
 
new void Dispose ()
 

Static Public Member Functions

static QElapsedTimer.ClockType clockType ()
 
 
static bool IsMonotonic ()
 
 
static bool operator!= (QElapsedTimer arg1, QElapsedTimer arg2)
 
 
static bool operator== (QElapsedTimer arg1, QElapsedTimer arg2)
 
 

Protected Member Functions

 QElapsedTimer (System.Type dummy)
 

Protected Attributes

SmokeInvocation interceptor
 

Properties

virtual System.IntPtr SmokeObject [get, set]
 

Detailed Description

The QElapsedTimer class provides a fast way to calculate elapsed times.

The QElapsedTimer class is usually used to quickly calculate how much time has elapsed between two events. Its API is similar to that of QTime, so code that was using that can be ported quickly to the new class.

However, unlike QTime, QElapsedTimer tries to use monotonic clocks if possible. This means it's not possible to convert QElapsedTimer objects to a human-readable time.

The typical use-case for the class is to determine how much time was spent in a slow operation. The simplest example of such a case is for debugging purposes, as in the following example:

QElapsedTimer timer;

timer.start();

slowOperation1();

qDebug() << "The slow operation took" << timer.elapsed() << "milliseconds";

In this example, the timer is started by a call to start() and the elapsed timer is calculated by the elapsed() function.

The time elapsed can also be used to recalculate the time available for another operation, after the first one is complete. This is useful when the execution must complete within a certain time period, but several steps are needed. The waitFor-type functions in QIODevice and its subclasses are good examples of such need. In that case, the code could be as follows:

void executeSlowOperations(int timeout)

{

QElapsedTimer timer;

timer.start();

slowOperation1();

int remainingTime = timeout - timer.elapsed();

if (remainingTime > 0)

slowOperation2(remainingTime);

}

Another use-case is to execute a certain operation for a specific timeslice. For this, QElapsedTimer provides the hasExpired() convenience function, which can be used to determine if a certain number of milliseconds has already elapsed:

void executeOperationsForTime(int ms)

{

QElapsedTimer timer;

timer.start();

while (!timer.hasExpired(ms))

slowOperation1();

}

Reference clocks

QElapsedTimer will use the platform's monotonic reference clock in all platforms that support it (see QElapsedTimer::isMonotonic()). This has the added benefit that QElapsedTimer is immune to time adjustments, such as the user correcting the time. Also unlike QTime, QElapsedTimer is immune to changes in the timezone settings, such as daylight savings periods.

On the other hand, this means QElapsedTimer values can only be compared with other values that use the same reference. This is especially true if the time since the reference is extracted from the QElapsedTimer object (QElapsedTimer::msecsSinceReference()) and serialised. These values should never be exchanged across the network or saved to disk, since there's no telling whether the computer node receiving the data is the same as the one originating it or if it has rebooted since.

It is, however, possible to exchange the value with other processes running on the same machine, provided that they also use the same reference clock. QElapsedTimer will always use the same clock, so it's safe to compare with the value coming from another process in the same machine. If comparing to values produced by other APIs, you should check that the clock used is the same as QElapsedTimer (see QElapsedTimer::clockType()).

32-bit overflows

Some of the clocks that QElapsedTimer have a limited range and may overflow after hitting the upper limit (usually 32-bit). QElapsedTimer deals with this overflow issue and presents a consistent timing. However, when extracting the time since reference from QElapsedTimer, two different processes in the same machine may have different understanding of how much time has actually elapsed.

The information on which clocks types may overflow and how to remedy that issue is documented along with the clock types.

See also QTime and QTimer.

Member Enumeration Documentation

This enum contains the different clock types that QElapsedTimer may use.

QElapsedTimer will always use the same clock type in a particular machine, so this value will not change during the lifetime of a program. It is provided so that QElapsedTimer can be used with other non-Qt implementations, to guarantee that the same reference clock is being used.

Enumerator:
MachAbsoluteTime 

The Mach kernel's absolute time (Mac OS X). This clock is monotonic and does not overflow.

MonotonicClock 

The system's monotonic clock, usually found in Unix systems. This clock is monotonic and does not overflow.

PerformanceCounter 

The high-resolution performance counter provided by Windows. This clock is monotonic and does not overflow.

SystemTime 

The human-readable system time. This clock is not monotonic.

TickCounter 

The system's tick counter, used on Windows and Symbian systems. This clock may overflow.

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

QtCore.QElapsedTimer.QElapsedTimer ( System.Type  dummy)
protected
QtCore.QElapsedTimer.QElapsedTimer ( )
QtCore.QElapsedTimer.QElapsedTimer ( QElapsedTimer  copy)

Member Function Documentation

static QElapsedTimer.ClockType QtCore.QElapsedTimer.clockType ( )
static

Returns the clock type that this QElapsedTimer implementation uses.

See also isMonotonic().

virtual void QtCore.QElapsedTimer.CreateProxy ( )
virtual
new void QtCore.QElapsedTimer.Dispose ( )
new long QtCore.QElapsedTimer.Elapsed ( )

Returns the number of milliseconds since this QElapsedTimer was last started. Calling this function in a QElapsedTimer that was invalidated will result in undefined results.

See also start(), restart(), hasExpired(), and invalidate().

override bool QtCore.QElapsedTimer.Equals ( object  o)
override int QtCore.QElapsedTimer.GetHashCode ( )
new bool QtCore.QElapsedTimer.HasExpired ( long  timeout)

Returns true if this QElapsedTimer has already expired by timeout milliseconds (that is, more than timeout milliseconds have elapsed). The value of timeout can be -1 to indicate that this timer does not expire, in which case this function will always return false.

See also elapsed().

new void QtCore.QElapsedTimer.Invalidate ( )

Marks this QElapsedTimer object as invalid.

An invalid object can be checked with isValid(). Calculations of timer elapsed since invalid data are undefined and will likely produce bizarre results.

See also isValid(), start(), and restart().

static bool QtCore.QElapsedTimer.IsMonotonic ( )
static

Returns true if this is a monotonic clock, false otherwise. See the information on the different clock types to understand which ones are monotonic.

See also clockType() and QElapsedTimer::ClockType.

new bool QtCore.QElapsedTimer.IsValid ( )

Returns false if this object was invalidated by a call to invalidate() and has not been restarted since.

See also invalidate(), start(), and restart().

new long QtCore.QElapsedTimer.MsecsSinceReference ( )

Returns the number of milliseconds between last time this QElapsedTimer object was started and its reference clock's start.

This number is usually arbitrary for all clocks except the QElapsedTimer::SystemTime clock. For that clock type, this number is the number of milliseconds since January 1st, 1970 at 0:00 UTC (that is, it is the Unix time expressed in milliseconds).

See also clockType() and elapsed().

new long QtCore.QElapsedTimer.MsecsTo ( QElapsedTimer  other)

Returns the number of milliseconds between this QElapsedTimer and other. If other was started before this object, the returned value will be positive. If it was started later, the returned value will be negative.

The return value is undefined if this object or other were invalidated.

See also secsTo() and elapsed().

new long QtCore.QElapsedTimer.NsecsElapsed ( )

Returns the number of nanoseconds since this QElapsedTimer was last started. Calling this function in a QElapsedTimer that was invalidated will result in undefined results.

On platforms that do not provide nanosecond resolution, the value returned will be the best estimate available.

This function was introduced in Qt 4.8.

See also start(), restart(), hasExpired(), and invalidate().

static bool QtCore.QElapsedTimer.operator!= ( QElapsedTimer  arg1,
QElapsedTimer  arg2 
)
static

Returns true if this object and other contain different times.

static bool QtCore.QElapsedTimer.operator== ( QElapsedTimer  arg1,
QElapsedTimer  arg2 
)
static

Returns true if this object and other contain the same time.

new long QtCore.QElapsedTimer.Restart ( )

Restarts the timer and returns the time elapsed since the previous start. This function is equivalent to obtaining the elapsed time with elapsed() and then starting the timer again with restart(), but it does so in one single operation, avoiding the need to obtain the clock value twice.

The following example illustrates how to use this function to calibrate a parameter to a slow operation (for example, an iteration count) so that this operation takes at least 250 milliseconds:

QElapsedTimer timer;

int count = 1;

timer.start();

do {

count *= 2;

slowOperation2(count);

} while (timer.restart() < 250);

return count;

See also start(), invalidate(), and elapsed().

new long QtCore.QElapsedTimer.SecsTo ( QElapsedTimer  other)

Returns the number of seconds between this QElapsedTimer and other. If other was started before this object, the returned value will be positive. If it was started later, the returned value will be negative.

The return value is undefined if this object or other were invalidated.

See also msecsTo() and elapsed().

new void QtCore.QElapsedTimer.Start ( )

Starts this timer. Once started, a timer value can be checked with elapsed() or msecsSinceReference().

Normally, a timer is started just before a lengthy operation, such as:

QElapsedTimer timer;

timer.start();

slowOperation1();

qDebug() << "The slow operation took" << timer.elapsed() << "milliseconds";

Also, starting a timer makes it valid again.

See also restart(), invalidate(), and elapsed().

Member Data Documentation

SmokeInvocation QtCore.QElapsedTimer.interceptor
protected

Property Documentation

virtual System.IntPtr QtCore.QElapsedTimer.SmokeObject
getset