PowerShell show elapsed time

Question

I have a script that kicks off an event and waits for the user to press any key to stop the script execution. I was trying to find a way to show a timer (how long the script has been running) while waiting for user input at Read-Host. Is there a way to accomplish this?

This works

$Time = [System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch]::StartNew()
while ($true) {
    $CurrentTime = $Time.Elapsed
    write-host $([string]::Format("`rTime: {0:d2}:{1:d2}:{2:d2}",
                                  $CurrentTime.hours,
                                  $CurrentTime.minutes,
                                  $CurrentTime.seconds)) -nonewline
    sleep 1
    if ($Host.UI.RawUI.KeyAvailable -and ("q" -eq $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey("IncludeKeyUp,NoEcho").Character)) {
        Write-Host "Exiting now"
        break;
    }
}

Take a look here for using WPF UI in backgound in powershell http://www.nivot.org/blog/post/2008/05/23/BackgroundTimerPowerShellWPFWidget — CB., Oct 10 '13 at 07:13

score 38 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 06 '19 at 18:09

38

This gave me the output I was after :)

$StartTime = $(get-date)

$elapsedTime = $(get-date) - $StartTime

$totalTime = "{0:HH:mm:ss}" -f ([datetime]$elapsedTime.Ticks)

edited Jan 06 '19 at 18:09

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 11 '17 at 10:02

m0del101

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score 19 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 04 '16 at 09:56

19

From the article Measuring Elapsed Time in Powershell (archived copy):

Assuming that the variable $script:StartTime was set at the beginning of your script, elapsed time can be determined using either of the following methods:

$elapsedTime = new-timespan $script:StartTime $(get-date)

or

$elapsedTime = $(get-date) - $script:StartTime

Both methods work exactly the same and produce a System.TimeSpan object.

So, using the above example, you could set $script:StartTime before Read-Host and then call $elapsedTime = $(get-date) - $script:StartTime after.

edited Feb 04 '16 at 09:56

superjos

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answered Jun 08 '12 at 00:44

xelco52

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1

Right, that much I understand, but I wanted to see if it is possible to show a running clock while waiting at the Read-Host prompt. – Jeff Jun 08 '12 at 00:51
your link to poshtips.com is dead – Atiq Rahman May 17 '20 at 07:31

Sweet_Pete · Answer 3 · 2019-01-07T12:20:48.483

7

Using a timer class (RIP poshtips) gave me something like this:

$Time = [System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch]::StartNew()
while ($NoEvent) {
    $CurrentTime = $Time.Elapsed
    write-host $([string]::Format("`rTime: {0:d2}:{1:d2}:{2:d2}",
                                  $CurrentTime.hours,
                                  $CurrentTime.minutes,
                                  $CurrentTime.seconds)) -nonewline
    sleep 1

    #Handle event
    if(event){$NoEvent = false}
}

Where $NoEvent is your event/boolean (key press func, etc.).

edited Jan 07 '19 at 12:20

answered Jun 08 '12 at 13:28

Sweet_Pete

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diagnostics.stopwatch is buggy, fwiw – cmcginty Mar 04 '15 at 01:53
The link is broken (the domain no longer exists). – Peter Mortensen Jan 06 '19 at 18:09
RIP poshtips, I'll remove the link. Thanks for the heads up! – Sweet_Pete Jan 07 '19 at 12:20

Clinton Ward · Answer 4 · 2017-06-28T13:28:13.697

4

I'm happy with this little function expanded on from Xelco52's answer

$startTime = $(get-date)
write-host "Elapsed:00:00:00"
$NoEvent = $true
While ($NoEvent)
{
  Start-Sleep 1
  $elapsedTime = new-timespan $startTime $(get-date)
  write-host "Elapsed:$($elapsedTime.ToString("hh\:mm\:ss"))"  

  #Handle event
  if(event){$NoEvent = $false} 
}

edited Jun 28 '17 at 13:28

answered Jun 28 '17 at 04:08

Clinton Ward

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ndemou · Answer 5 · 2023-02-17T09:57:46.557

3

TLDR answer

$StartTime = $(get-date)
#...do something...
$elapsedTime = $(get-date) - $StartTime

Most of the times $elapsedTime.TotalSeconds or $elapsedTime.TotalMilliseconds is what you want.

edited Feb 17 '23 at 09:57

answered Aug 12 '22 at 09:59

ndemou

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PowerShell show elapsed time

5 Answers5