base (version 3.4.1)

system.time: CPU Time Used

Description

Return CPU (and other) times that expr used.

Usage

system.time(expr, gcFirst = TRUE)

Arguments

expr

Valid R expression to be timed.

gcFirst

Logical - should a garbage collection be performed immediately before the timing? Default is TRUE.

Value

A object of class "proc_time": see proc.time for details.

Details

system.time calls the function proc.time, evaluates expr, and then calls proc.time once more, returning the difference between the two proc.time calls.

unix.time has been an alias of system.time, for compatibility with S, and has finally been deprecated in 2016.

Timings of evaluations of the same expression can vary considerably depending on whether the evaluation triggers a garbage collection. When gcFirst is TRUE a garbage collection (gc) will be performed immediately before the evaluation of expr. This will usually produce more consistent timings.

See Also

proc.time, time which is for time series.

Sys.time to get the current date & time.

Examples

require(stats)
system.time(for(i in 1:100) mad(runif(1000)))

exT <- function(n = 10000) {
  # Purpose: Test if system.time works ok;   n: loop size
  system.time(for(i in 1:n) x <- mean(rt(1000, df = 4)))
}
#-- Try to interrupt one of the following (using Ctrl-C / Escape):
exT()                 #- about 4 secs on a 2.5GHz Xeon
system.time(exT())    #~ +/- same