How do I measure the execution time of JavaScript code with callbacks?

Question

I have a piece of JavaScript code that I am executing using the node.js interpreter.

for(var i = 1; i < LIMIT; i++) {
  var user = {
    id: i,
    name: "MongoUser [" + i + "]"
  };
  db.users.save(user, function(err, saved) {
    if(err || !saved) {
      console.log("Error");
    } else {
      console.log("Saved");
    }
  });
}

How can I measure the time taken by these database insert operations? I could compute the difference of date values after and before this piece of code but that would be incorrect because of the asynchronous nature of the code.

Answer 1

Use the Node.js console.time() and console.timeEnd():

var i;
console.time("dbsave");

for(i = 1; i < LIMIT; i++){
    db.users.save({id : i, name : "MongoUser [" + i + "]"}, end);
}

end = function(err, saved) {
    console.log(( err || !saved )?"Error":"Saved");
    if(--i === 1){console.timeEnd("dbsave");}
};

Answer 2

There is a method that is designed for this. Check out process.hrtime(); .

So, I basically put this at the top of my app.

var start = process.hrtime();

var elapsed_time = function(note){
    var precision = 3; // 3 decimal places
    var elapsed = process.hrtime(start)[1] / 1000000; // divide by a million to get nano to milli
    console.log(process.hrtime(start)[0] + " s, " + elapsed.toFixed(precision) + " ms - " + note); // print message + time
    start = process.hrtime(); // reset the timer
}

Then I use it to see how long functions take. Here's a basic example that prints the contents of a text file called "output.txt":

var debug = true;
http.createServer(function(request, response) {

    if(debug) console.log("----------------------------------");
    if(debug) elapsed_time("recieved request");

    var send_html = function(err, contents) {
        if(debug) elapsed_time("start send_html()");
        response.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html' } );
        response.end(contents);
        if(debug) elapsed_time("end send_html()");
    }

    if(debug) elapsed_time("start readFile()");
    fs.readFile('output.txt', send_html);
    if(debug) elapsed_time("end readFile()");

}).listen(8080);

Here's a quick test you can run in a terminal (BASH shell):

for i in {1..100}; do echo $i; curl http://localhost:8080/; done

Answer 3

Invoking console.time('label') will record the current time in milliseconds, then later calling console.timeEnd('label') will display the duration from that point.

The time in milliseconds will be automatically printed alongside the label, so you don't have to make a separate call to console.log to print a label:

console.time('test');
//some code
console.timeEnd('test'); //Prints something like that-> test: 11374.004ms

For more information, see Mozilla's developer docs on console.time.

Answer 4

Surprised no one had mentioned yet the new built in libraries:

Available in Node >= 8.5, and should be in Modern Browers

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Performance

https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v8.x/api/perf_hooks.html#

Node 8.5 ~ 9.x (Firefox, Chrome)

// const { performance } = require('perf_hooks'); // enable for node
const delay = time => new Promise(res=>setTimeout(res,time))
async function doSomeLongRunningProcess(){
  await delay(1000);
}
performance.mark('A');
(async ()=>{
  await doSomeLongRunningProcess();
  performance.mark('B');
  performance.measure('A to B', 'A', 'B');
  const measure = performance.getEntriesByName('A to B')[0];
  // firefox appears to only show second precision.
  console.log(measure.duration);
  // apparently you should clean up...
  performance.clearMarks();
  performance.clearMeasures();         
  // Prints the number of milliseconds between Mark 'A' and Mark 'B'
})();

https://repl.it/@CodyGeisler/NodeJsPerformanceHooks

Node 12.x

https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v12.x/api/perf_hooks.html

const { PerformanceObserver, performance } = require('perf_hooks');
const delay = time => new Promise(res => setTimeout(res, time))
async function doSomeLongRunningProcess() {
    await delay(1000);
}
const obs = new PerformanceObserver((items) => {
    console.log('PerformanceObserver A to B',items.getEntries()[0].duration);
      // apparently you should clean up...
      performance.clearMarks();
      // performance.clearMeasures(); // Not a function in Node.js 12
});
obs.observe({ entryTypes: ['measure'] });

performance.mark('A');

(async function main(){
    try{
        await performance.timerify(doSomeLongRunningProcess)();
        performance.mark('B');
        performance.measure('A to B', 'A', 'B');
    }catch(e){
        console.log('main() error',e);
    }
})();

Answer 5

For anyone want to get time elapsed value instead of console output :

use process.hrtime() as @D.Deriso suggestion, below is my simpler approach :

function functionToBeMeasured() {
    var startTime = process.hrtime();
    // do some task...
    // ......
    var elapsedSeconds = parseHrtimeToSeconds(process.hrtime(startTime));
    console.log('It takes ' + elapsedSeconds + 'seconds');
}

function parseHrtimeToSeconds(hrtime) {
    var seconds = (hrtime[0] + (hrtime[1] / 1e9)).toFixed(3);
    return seconds;
}

Answer 6

var start = +new Date();
var counter = 0;
for(var i = 1; i < LIMIT; i++){
    ++counter;
    db.users.save({id : i, name : "MongoUser [" + i + "]"}, function(err, saved) {
          if( err || !saved ) console.log("Error");
          else console.log("Saved");
          if (--counter === 0) 
          {
              var end = +new Date();
              console.log("all users saved in " + (end-start) + " milliseconds");
          }
    });
}

Answer 7

Old question but for a simple API and light-weight solution; you can use perfy which uses high-resolution real time (process.hrtime) internally.

var perfy = require('perfy');

function end(label) {
    return function (err, saved) {
        console.log(err ? 'Error' : 'Saved'); 
        console.log( perfy.end(label).time ); // <——— result: seconds.milliseconds
    };
}

for (var i = 1; i < LIMIT; i++) {
    var label = 'db-save-' + i;
    perfy.start(label); // <——— start and mark time
    db.users.save({ id: i, name: 'MongoUser [' + i + ']' }, end(label));
}

Note that each time perfy.end(label) is called, that instance is auto-destroyed.

Disclosure: Wrote this module, inspired by D.Deriso's answer. Docs here.

Answer 8

You could give Benchmark.js a try. It supports many platforms among them also node.js.

Answer 9

You could also try exectimer. It gives you feedback like:

var t = require("exectimer");

var myFunction() {
   var tick = new t.tick("myFunction");
   tick.start();
   // do some processing and end this tick
   tick.stop();
}

// Display the results
console.log(t.timers.myFunction.duration()); // total duration of all ticks
console.log(t.timers.myFunction.min()); // minimal tick duration
console.log(t.timers.myFunction.max()); // maximal tick duration
console.log(t.timers.myFunction.mean()); // mean tick duration
console.log(t.timers.myFunction.median()); // median tick duration

[edit] There is an even simpler way now to use exectime. Your code could be wrapped like this:

var t = require('exectimer'),
Tick = t.Tick;

for(var i = 1; i < LIMIT; i++){
    Tick.wrap(function saveUsers(done) {
        db.users.save({id : i, name : "MongoUser [" + i + "]"}, function(err, saved) {
            if( err || !saved ) console.log("Error");
            else console.log("Saved");
            done();
        });
    });
}

// Display the results
console.log(t.timers.myFunction.duration()); // total duration of all ticks
console.log(t.timers.saveUsers.min()); // minimal tick duration
console.log(t.timers.saveUsers.max()); // maximal tick duration
console.log(t.timers.saveUsers.mean()); // mean tick duration
console.log(t.timers.saveUsers.median()); // median tick duration

Answer 10

I had same issue while moving from AWS to Azure

For express & aws, you can already use, existing time() and timeEnd()

For Azure, use this: https://github.com/manoharreddyporeddy/my-nodejs-notes/blob/master/performance_timers_helper_nodejs_azure_aws.js

These time() and timeEnd() use the existing hrtime() function, which give high-resolution real time.

Hope this helps.

Answer 11

I need this to be cumulative, and to measure different stuff.
Built these functions:

function startMeasuring(key) {
  measureTimers[key] = process.hrtime();
}

function stopMeasuring(key) {
  if (!measures[key]) {
    measures[key] = 0;
  }

  let hrtime = process.hrtime(measureTimers[key]);
  measures[key] += hrtime[0] + hrtime[1] / 1e9;
  measureTimers[key] = null;
}

Usage:

startMeasuring("first Promise");
startMeasuring("first and second Promises");
await new Promise((resolve) => {
  setTimeout(resolve, 1400);
});
stopMeasuring("first Promise");
stopMeasuring("first and second Promises");

startMeasuring("first and second Promises");
await new Promise((resolve) => {
  setTimeout(resolve, 600);
});
stopMeasuring("first and second Promises");

console.log("Measure Results", measures); 
/*
Measusre Results {
  setting: 0.00002375,
  'first Promise': 1.409392916,
  'first and second Promise': 2.015160376
}
*/