Timing A Function In Elixir

Erlang provides the :timer module for all things timing. The oddly named function tc will let you know how long a function takes:

{uSecs, :ok} = :timer.tc(IO, :puts, ["Hello World"])

Note that uSecs is microseconds not milliseconds so divide by 1_000_000 to get seconds.

microseconds are helpful though because sometimes functions are just that quick.

:timer.tc(IO, :puts, ["Hello World"])
# {22, :ok}

You can also call :timer.tc with a function and args:

adding = fn (x, y) ->  x + y end

:timer.tc(adding, [1,3])
# {5, 4}

Or just a function:

:timer.tc(fn -> 
    # something really expensive
    :ok
    end)
# {1_302_342, :ok}