Chronograph

Easy to use Java Chronograph (stopwatch) allowing measurement of elapsed time.

Features

• The same task can be timed multiple times for aggregated/cumulative data.
• Supports numerous metrics:
  • mean
  • median
  • min/max
  • max
  • standard deviation
  • percentiles
  • percentage
  • count
  • total time
• Human-readable durations
• Highly tweaked code for minimal overhead. Custom list for capturing results with as low overhead as possible.
• Dynamic ASCII/UTF-8 table support for detailed result output on the console or in logs
• Support for colored output (ANSI console)
• Easy to fetch the underlying data for when you need your own output format
• Configurable sample interval for very fast running tasks
• No dependencies (~35KB jar file)

Getting started

Include in your project

Maven coordinates

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.ethlo.time</groupId>
  <artifactId>chronograph</artifactId>
  <version>1.2.0</version>
</dependency>

Usage

Simple

final Chronograph chronograph = Chronograph.create();
chronograph.start("my-task");
// perform a task
chronograph.stop();
System.out.printn(chronograph.prettyPrint());

Functional style with lamda

final List<Long> myList = ...;
final Chronograph chronograph = Chronograph.create();     
chronograph.timed("List sort", () -> linkedList.sort(Comparator.naturalOrder()));
System.out.printn(chronograph.prettyPrint());

Choice of output columns

Empty columns will be dropped automatically. Included columns can be configured.

Begin from scratch:

final OutputConfig cfg = new OutputConfig()
  .median(true)
  .standardDeviation(true));

Begin from DEFAULT configuration:

final OutputConfig cfg = Chronograph.configure(OutputConfig.DEFAULT
  .percentiles(75, 90, 99, 99.9, 99.99));

Output TSV (Tab separated values) with throughput per second values (instead of duration)

System.out.println(Report.prettyPrint(chronograph, 
   OutputConfig.COMPACT
       .mode(PresentationMode.THROUGHPUT)
       .benchmarkMode(true)
       .formatting(false),
   TableTheme.TSV

// Then use it like this
System.out.println(chronograph.prettyPrint(cfg, TableTheme.RED_HERRING);

Reduced sample interval

If you run very quick tasks (typically less than milliseconds) in a loop, it may be beneficial to not capture every iteration, but instead sample some of them. This can be achieved by

final Chronograph chronograph = Chronograph
    .create(CaptureConfig
        .minInterval(Duration.ofNanos(10_000))); // 10 microseconds

Themes

You can choose to output the results using different styles and colors. Below are a few examples.

final Chronograph chronograph = Chronograph.create();
final OutputConfig cfg = ...;
System.out.println(chronograph.prettyPrint(cfg, TableTheme.RED_HERRING));

Make your own

final TableTheme myTheme = TableTheme.builder()
    .stringColor(AnsiColor.BLUE)
    .numericColor(AnsiColor.GREEN)
    .horizontalSeparator(" ")
    .verticalSpacerColor(AnsiColor.GRAY)
    .horizontalSpacerColor(AnsiColor.GRAY)
    .build();

Limitations

Time resolution

This project is utilizing System.nanoTime() which has some inherent issues with very quick task times. It does have a nanosecond resolution, but not a nanosecond precision. These are still usually orders of magnitude away from what you are trying to measure, so it is not a problem. If you are micro-benchmarking, consider using a framework like JMH.

If you would like to know more:

• https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/docs/api/java.base/java/lang/System.html#nanoTime()
• https://shipilev.net/blog/2014/nanotrusting-nanotime/#_timers

Thread safety

The Chronograph is NOT thread safe.