How can I accurately measure how long a function takes to run in Python?

General Discussions
, ,
3

Absolutely, and I agree with @jacqueline-bosco on the simplicity of time.time(). However, for more precise measurements, especially when you’re timing small durations or testing multiple functions, I recommend using time.perf_counter() instead it provides a higher resolution. To make it cleaner, you can wrap the timing code in a decorator:

import time

def time_it(func):
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        start = time.perf_counter()
        result = func(*args, **kwargs)
        end = time.perf_counter()
        print(f"{func.__name__} took {end - start:.6f} seconds")
        return result
    return wrapper

@time_it
def my_function():
    print("hello")

my_function()

This way, you’re keeping your code reusable and elegant, and it works well if you’re testing multiple functions in your project.