microtime

Synopsis

Returns

String containing microseconds and seconds

Description

Gives the microseconds component of the current time. The string returned from this function is made of up the number of microseconds followed by the UNIX epoch time. To perform calculations on this function, you process the output to obtain an actual number. Another option would be to use gettimeofday() to obtain the microseconds component of the current time.

This function can be useful for simple benchmarking. By timing the start and finish of a process in your script, you can determine where the script may require optimization.

Version

PHP 3, PHP 4

Example

function getmicrotime() {
    // split output from microtime() on a space
    list($usec, $sec) = explode(" ",microtime());
     
    // append in correct order
    return ((float)$usec + (float)$sec); 
} 

$start = getmicrotime();
    
for ($i=0; $i < 10000; $i++){
    //loop 10000 times
}

$finish = getmicrotime();

printf("Processing took %.3f seconds", $finish - $start);