Implementations[edit]

Java[edit]

public class ExecutionTimer {
  private long start;
  private long end;

  public ExecutionTimer() {
    reset();
  }

  public void start() {
    start = System.currentTimeMillis();
  }

  public void end() {
    end = System.currentTimeMillis();
  }

  public long duration(){
    return (end-start);
  }

  public void reset() {
    start = 0;  
    end   = 0;
  }

  public static void main(String s[]) {
    // simple example
    ExecutionTimer t = new ExecutionTimer();
    t.start();
    for (int i=0; i < 80; i++){ System.out.print(".");}
    t.end();
    System.out.println("\n" + t.duration() + " ms");
  }
}

See this HowTo to format a duration in ms into a string as "Days , Hours , minutes and seconds".

Ruby[edit]

class ExecutionTimer
  def initialize
    reset
  end
  def start
    @start = Time.now
    @end = nil
  end
  def end
    @end = Time.now
  end
  def duration
    @end - @start
  rescue
    raise "#{self.class} setup error (start or end)"
  end
  def reset
    @start = @end = nil
  end
end

t = ExecutionTimer.new
t.start
80.times {print "."; sleep 0.01}
t.end
puts "\n#{t.duration} sec"