microtime

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

Return current Unix timestamp with microseconds

mixed microtime ([ bool $get_as_float = false ] )

microtime() returns the current Unix timestamp with microseconds. This function is only available on operating systems that support the gettimeofday() system call.

Parameters:

get_as_float

If used and set to TRUE, microtime() will return a float instead of a string, as described in the return values section below.

Returns:

By default, microtime() returns a string in the form "msec sec", where sec is the number of seconds since the Unix epoch (0:00:00 January 1,1970 GMT), and msec measures microseconds that have elapsed since sec and is also expressed in seconds.

If get_as_float is set to TRUE, then microtime() returns a float, which represents the current time in seconds since the Unix epoch accurate to the nearest microsecond.

Examples:

Timing script execution with microtime()

<?php
/**
 * Simple function to replicate PHP 5 behaviour
 */
function microtime_float()
{
    list($usec, $sec) = explode(" ", microtime());
    return ((float)$usec + (float)$sec);
}
 
$time_start = microtime_float();
 
// Sleep for a while
usleep(100);
 
$time_end = microtime_float();
$time = $time_end - $time_start;
 
echo "Did nothing in $time seconds\n";
?>

Timing script execution in PHP 5

<?php
$time_start = microtime(true);
 
// Sleep for a while
usleep(100);
 
$time_end = microtime(true);
$time = $time_end - $time_start;
 
echo "Did nothing in $time seconds\n";
?>

microtime() and REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT (as of PHP 5.4.0)

<?php
// Randomize sleeping time
usleep(mt_rand(100, 10000));
 
// As of PHP 5.4.0, REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT is available in the $_SERVER superglobal array.
// It contains the timestamp of the start of the request with microsecond precision.
$time = microtime(true) - $_SERVER["REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT"];
 
echo "Did nothing in $time seconds\n";
?>