Time and Timers

Getting Current Time#

Get the current date/time as a time value:

Get current time into now.
a time called now is current time.

Time Properties#

Access components of a time value using the 's property syntax:

Example:

Get current time into now.
Print "Current time: ".
Print the now's hour.
Print ":".
Print the now's minute.
Print ":".
Print the now's second.

Print "Date: ".
Print the now's year.
Print "-".
Print the now's month.
Print "-".
Print the now's day.

Inline Time Access#

Access current time properties directly without storing:

Print "It is currently hour ".
Print current time's hour.
Print " of the day.".

Sleep / Wait#

Pause program execution for a specified duration:

Wait 1 second.
Wait 2 seconds.
Wait 500 milliseconds.
Sleep for 3 seconds.

Syntax variations:

• Wait <N> second. / Wait <N> seconds.
• Wait <N> millisecond. / Wait <N> milliseconds.
• Sleep for <N> seconds.
• Sleep for <N> milliseconds.

Timers#

Timers are stopwatches for measuring durations. They track start time, end time, and elapsed duration.

Creating a Timer#

Create a timer called 'job timer'.
a timer called benchmark.

Starting and Stopping#

Start the 'job timer'.
(... do work ...)
Stop the 'job timer'.

Alternative spellings:

• Start / Begin
• Stop / Finish

These four words are contextual, not reserved. They open a timer statement only when a name operand follows — Start the t., stop t. — and everywhere else they are ordinary identifiers, so a number called stop is 0. compiles, and a program may define and call its own zero-argument start. function. (End is not a Stop spelling: end belongs to the exit family of keywords and remains reserved.)

Timer Properties#

Getting Duration#

Use in to cast duration to a specific unit:

Print the 'job timer''s duration in seconds.
Print the 'job timer''s duration in milliseconds.
Print the 'job timer''s elapsed in seconds.

Complete Timer Example#

(Measure job duration)
Print "Starting job...".
Create a timer called 'job timer'.
Start the 'job timer'.

(... do work ...)
Wait 1 second.
Print "Seconds elapsed so far: ".
Print the 'job timer''s elapsed in seconds.

Wait 500 milliseconds.
Stop the 'job timer'.

Print "Finished the job in: ".
Print the 'job timer''s duration in seconds.
Print " seconds".

(Access raw timestamps)
Print "Started at unix time: ".
Print the 'job timer''s start time.
Print "Stopped at unix time: ".
Print the 'job timer''s end time.

Formatted Time Output#

Combine time properties with the zero-pad format specifier (see Format Specifiers) for formatted output. A time property can be read directly inside a format slot:

Get current time into now.
Print "{now's hour:02}:{now's minute:02}:{now's second:02}".
(Prints: 09:05:03)

Or, if you want the parts as named values first:

Get current time into now.
a text called h is "{now's hour:02}".
a text called m is "{now's minute:02}".
a text called s is "{now's second:02}".

Print "{h}:{m}:{s}".
(Prints: 09:05:03)