How can I count time in Python 3?

Question

I want a code that shows the complete time someone has been in a voice channel, but I don't know how to start and stop a counter.

@bot.event
async def on_voice_state_update(before, after):

    if after.voice.voice_channel:
        timestrr = time.strftime("%d.%m.%Y-%H:%M:%S")
        voicezeit(after.id, timestrr)
#here should a timer start
    else:
         #and here should the timer stop

Answer 1

If you just want to measure the elapsed wall-clock time between two points, you could use time.time():

import time

start = time.time()
print("hello")
end = time.time()
print(end - start)

This gives the execution time in seconds.

Another option since 3.3 might be to use perf_counter or process_time, depending on your requirements. Before 3.3 it was recommended to use time.clock . However, it is currently deprecated:

On Unix, return the current processor time as a floating point number expressed in seconds. The precision, and in fact the very definition of the meaning of “processor time”, depends on that of the C function of the same name.

On Windows, this function returns wall-clock seconds elapsed since the first call to this function, as a floating point number, based on the Win32 function QueryPerformanceCounter(). The resolution is typically better than one microsecond.

Deprecated since version 3.3: The behaviour of this function depends on the platform: use perf_counter() or process_time() instead, depending on your requirements, to have a well defined behaviour.

Answer 2

Why do you need a counter? Just initialise start_time variable to None in the beginning, then in your if-block you check whether it is set, if it isn't you set it to time.time(). In the else-block set end_time to time.time() again and calculate the difference.

EDIT

I don't know what the layout of the rest of your application, you have to initialise start_time = None somewhere outside of this update function. You would need to set it for each user, I will assume it is stored as user.start_time, but again, this is dependent on the structure of your app. Then your function could become this:

    @bot.event
    async def on_voice_state_update(before, after):

        if after.voice.voice_channel:
            if not user.start_time:  # this was set to None somewhere else
                user.start_time = time.time()
            # import datetime from datetime at the top of your file
            timestrr = datetime.from_timestamp(user.start_time).strftime("%d.%m.%Y-%H:%M:%S")
            voicezeit(after.id, timestrr)
        else:
             end_time = time.time()
             voice_chat_time = end_time - after.user.start_time