precise time measurement

Question

I'm using time.h in C++ to measure the timing of a function.

clock_t t = clock();
someFunction();
printf("\nTime taken: %.4fs\n", (float)(clock() - t)/CLOCKS_PER_SEC);

however, I'm always getting the time taken as 0.0000. clock() and t when printed separately, have the same value. I would like to know if there is way to measure the time precisely (maybe in the order of nanoseconds) in C++ . I'm using VS2010.

Answer 1

I usually use the QueryPerformanceCounter function.

example:

LARGE_INTEGER frequency;        // ticks per second
LARGE_INTEGER t1, t2;           // ticks
double elapsedTime;

// get ticks per second
QueryPerformanceFrequency(&frequency);

// start timer
QueryPerformanceCounter(&t1);

// do something
...

// stop timer
QueryPerformanceCounter(&t2);

// compute and print the elapsed time in millisec
elapsedTime = (t2.QuadPart - t1.QuadPart) * 1000.0 / frequency.QuadPart;