Computes difference between two calendar times as std::time_t objects (time_end - time_beg) in seconds. If time_end refers to time point before time_beg then the result is negative.

Parameters

Return value

Difference between two times in seconds.

Notes

On POSIX systems, std::time_t is measured in seconds, and difftime is equivalent to arithmetic subtraction, but C and C++ allow fractional units for time_t.

Example

#include <ctime>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    std::time_t start = std::time(nullptr);
    volatile double d = 1.0;

    // some time-consuming operation
    for (int p = 0; p < 10000; ++p)
        for (int q = 0; q < 100000; ++q)
            d = d + p * d * q + d;

    std::cout << "Wall time passed: "
              << std::difftime(std::time(nullptr), start) << " s.\n";
}

See also