Time Functions in Python | Set 1 (time(), ctime(), sleep()…)

Python has defined a module, “time” which allows us to handle various operations regarding time, its conversions and representations, which find its use in various applications in life. The beginning of time is started measuring from 1 January, 12:00 am, 1970 and this very time is termed as “epoch” in Python.

Operations on Time :

1. time() :- This function is used to count the number of seconds elapsed since the epoch.

2. gmtime(sec) :- This function returns a structure with 9 values each representing a time attribute in sequence. It converts seconds into time attributes(days, years, months etc.) till specified seconds from epoch. If no seconds are mentioned, time is calculated till present. The structure attribute table is given below. 

Index   Attributes   Values
 0        tm_year     2008
 1        tm_mon      1 to 12
 2        tm_mday     1 to 31
 3        tm_hour     0 to 23
 4        tm_min      0 to 59
 5        tm_sec      0 to 61 (60 or 61 are leap-seconds)
 6        tm_wday     0 to 6 
 7        tm_yday     1 to 366
 8        tm_isdst    -1, 0, 1 where -1 means 
                               Library determines DST

Python3

# Python code to demonstrate the working of
# time() and gmtime()

#  importing "time" module for time operations
import time

# using time() to display time since epoch
print ("Seconds elapsed since the epoch are : ",end="")
print (time.time())


# using gmtime() to return the time attribute structure
print ("Time calculated acc. to given seconds is : ")
print (time.gmtime())

Output: 

Seconds elapsed since the epoch are : 1470121951.9536893
Time calculated acc. to given seconds is : 
time.struct_time(tm_year=2016, tm_mon=8, tm_mday=2,
tm_hour=7, tm_min=12, tm_sec=31, tm_wday=1, 
tm_yday=215, tm_isdst=0)

3. asctime(“time”) :- This function takes a time attributed string produced by gmtime() and returns a 24 character string denoting time.

4. ctime(sec) :- This function returns a 24 character time string but takes seconds as argument and computes time till mentioned seconds. If no argument is passed, time is calculated till present.

Python3

# Python code to demonstrate the working of
# asctime() and ctime()

#  importing "time" module for time operations
import time

# initializing time using gmtime()
ti = time.gmtime()

# using asctime() to display time acc. to time mentioned
print ("Time calculated using asctime() is : ",end="")
print (time.asctime(ti))


# using ctime() to display time string using seconds
print ("Time calculated using ctime() is : ", end="")
print (time.ctime())

Output: 

Time calculated using asctime() is : Tue Aug  2 07:47:02 2016
Time calculated using ctime() is : Tue Aug  2 07:47:02 2016

5. sleep(sec) :- This method is used to halt the program execution for the time specified in the arguments.

Python3

# Python code to demonstrate the working of
# sleep()

#  importing "time" module for time operations
import time

# using ctime() to show present time
print ("Start Execution : ",end="")
print (time.ctime())

# using sleep() to hault execution
time.sleep(4)

# using ctime() to show present time
print ("Stop Execution : ",end="")
print (time.ctime())

Output: 

Start Execution : Tue Aug  2 07:59:03 2016
Stop Execution : Tue Aug  2 07:59:07 2016

This article is contributed by Manjeet Singh. If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using write.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to review-team@geeksforgeeks.org. See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.
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