Question

I have written scripts to download XML data via HTTP. I would like to record (in a database) how long it takes to download the XML file. Does PHP have a built in function for timing the length of a download?

Answer 1

PHP has built in functions to record time. Many people use microtime() to profile their functions.

Here’s an example from the manual:

<?php
$time_start = microtime(1);

// PUT YOUR DOWNLOAD FUNCTION HERE - GWB

$time_end = microtime(1);
$time = $time_end - $time_start;

echo "Downloaded in ".round($time,5)." seconds\n";
?>

IMPORTANT NOTE: As @toon81 mentioned in a comment on the other post, you have to watch out for time changes on the server. As mentioned in the comments section of the microtime manual page

“However it is true that result depends of gettimeofday() call. […] If system time change, result of this function can be unpredictable (much greater or less than zero).”