Time Module

Introduction

The time module provides time-related functions for performance measurement and scheduling.

Basic Time

import time

# Current time
time.time()          # Unix timestamp
time.ctime()         # Human-readable string

# Sleep
time.sleep(1)        # Sleep for 1 second

# Performance measurement
start = time.time()
# ... code ...
end = time.time()
print(f"Elapsed: {end - start}")

Process Time

import time

# CPU time (not including sleep)
start_cpu = time.process_time()
# ... code ...
end_cpu = time.process_time()

# High resolution
time.perf_counter()  # Most precise for measuring intervals
time.monotonic()    # Never goes backward

Struct Time

import time

now = time.localtime()
print(now.tm_year, now.tm_mon, now.tm_mday)
print(now.tm_hour, now.tm_min, now.tm_sec)

# Format time
formatted = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", now)

# Parse time
parsed = time.strptime("2024-06-15", "%Y-%m-%d")

Practice Problems

1. Measure function execution time
2. Create performance benchmark
3. Format timestamps for display
4. Parse various date formats
5. Implement retry with exponential backoff