Library for timing execution and benchmarking

An instance of the stopwatch can be created with the static methods:

$stopwatch = Stopwatch::create();

or

$stopwatch = Stopwatch::createStarted();

As the name suggests createStarted() method is also starting the stopwatch. A not started stopwatch can be started using

$stopwatch->start();

When a stopwatch is started, it can be stopped with

$stopwatch->stop();

While capturing time, hrtime() is used for the best efficiency. On 32-bit runtimes there might be some decimal losses due to float php precision limit but only on microsecond decimals level. The methods start() and stop() are fast and the calculation of the difference is done when calling the methods:

$seconds = $stopwatch->getElapsedSeconds();
$milliseconds = $stopwatch->getElapsedMilliseconds();
$microseconds = $stopwatch->getElapsedMicroseconds();

There are also three stopwatch status methods that can be used

$stopwatch->wasStarted();
$stopwatch->isRunning();
$stopwatch->wasStopped();

Another functionality also included is related to steps (or laps). When a stopwatch is running, steps can be marked without affecting the stopwatch status with:

$stopwatch->step($stepName);

$stepName is the name of the step and must not be reused for the same stopwatch.

The number of steps can be retrieved with

$stopwatch->getStepsNumber();

There are three methods for retrieving the time difference between start and each of the steps. The result is an array indexed by the step name.

$seconds = $stopwatch->getElapsedStepsSeconds();
$milliseconds = $stopwatch->getElapsedStepsMilliseconds();
$microseconds = $stopwatch->getElapsedStepsMicroseconds();

There is support for pausing the stopwatch. The methods to do this are:

$stopwatch->pause();
$stopwatch->resume();

Pausing and resuming are as fast as possible, and the calculation is done within the getElapsed* methods.