I need to run a loop during a precise duration. For example, the code I'm trying to make would look like that :
initialize and lauch timer
while timer<10000sec:
do things
Do you know how to do this ?
Thank you :)
2 Answers
stop = time.time()+10000
while time.time() < stop:
do things
This requires that each run through the loop is sufficiently short so that you read the current time often enough (for the preciseness that you want to achieve).
3 Comments
Eli Bendersky
on the other hand if the loop body is very short the call to
time.time() on each iteration can dominate the runtime. What I'm trying to say to the OP is that if performance is critical here, he may consider an alternative approach
Nix
This code works perfectly. But I'd like a method less power consuming if it exists.
Martin v. Löwis
@Nix: you'll have to explain what "do things" actually is. In good programming, you should be blocking when you wait for something to happen, instead of polling: this (bad) approach is called "busy wait". If you need busy wait, you can put calls of time.sleep(delay) into the loop, with delay being e.g. 0.2.
import time
t_end = time.time() + 60 * <> #duration goes inside <>; eg 2 for 2 minutes
while time.time() < t_end:
#rest of the code
1 Comment
Jeremy Caney
Remember that Stack Overflow isn't just intended to solve the immediate problem, but also to help future readers find solutions to similar problems, which requires understanding the underlying code. This is especially important for members of our community who are beginners, and not familiar with the syntax. Given that, can you edit your answer to include an explanation of what you're doing and why you believe it is the best approach?
do thingsbe aborted after given time or should it finish first?