Time (std.time)

Core standard library module for timestamp tracking.

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Time Tracking (std.time)

Retrieve accurate system epoch timestamps in seconds or milliseconds:

import std.time

// Get current UNIX timestamp in seconds
let secs = time.now().toSeconds()
println($"Current Seconds: {secs}")

// Get current high-resolution UNIX timestamp object
let now = time.now()
println($"Timestamp in Milliseconds: {now.toMillis()}")

// Parse an RFC3339 or RFC2822 date string into a Timestamp
let parsed = time.parse("2026-08-10T08:00:00Z")
println($"Parsed Timestamp Millis: {parsed.toMillis()}")

Timestamp Manipulation

Since timestamps are returned as Timestamp objects in Flame, you can easily access milliseconds or string representations.

import std.time

let now = time.now()

// Extract components
println($"Millis: {now.toMillis()}")
println($"Seconds: {now.toSeconds()}")
println($"String: {now.toString()}")

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High-Resolution Benchmarking (time.perfCounter)

For microbenchmarks and profiling, Flame provides time.perfCounter() (and alias time.counter()). Equivalent to Python’s time.perf_counter(), it queries the system’s high-resolution monotonic clock with zero allocations and returns elapsed fractional seconds as a Float.

import std.time

let start = time.perfCounter()

// Run benchmark workload...
let mut sum = 0
for i in 0..1000000 {
    sum = sum + i
}

let elapsed = time.perfCounter() - start
println($"Workload finished in {elapsed} seconds")

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Monotonic Elapsed Timers (time.instant)

Use time.instant() to capture an immutable starting point in monotonic time, and query .elapsed() to receive a Duration object:

import std.time

let timer = time.instant()

// Execute code...
time.sleep(50)

let duration = timer.elapsed()
println($"Elapsed Millis:  {duration.toMillis()} ms")
println($"Elapsed Seconds: {duration.toSeconds()} s")
println($"Formatted:       {duration.toString()}")

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API Summary Tables

Time (std.time)

Method	Arguments	Returns	Description
time.perfCounter	None	Float	Returns high-resolution performance counter in fractional seconds (monotonic, zero-alloc).
time.counter	None	Float	Alias for time.perfCounter().
time.instant	None	Instant	Returns a monotonic instant suitable for measuring elapsed durations.
time.now	None	Timestamp	Returns the current UTC time as a Timestamp object.
time.parse	date_string: String	Timestamp	Parses an ISO-8601 or RFC-3339 string into a Timestamp.
time.fromMillis	milliseconds: Int	Timestamp	Creates a Timestamp from Unix epoch milliseconds.
time.fromSeconds	seconds: Int	Timestamp	Creates a Timestamp from Unix epoch seconds.
time.sleep	ms: Int	Nil	Suspends execution for the specified milliseconds.

Timestamp Methods (Timestamp)

The Timestamp object provides the following native methods:

Method	Arguments	Returns	Description
.toMillis()	None	Int	Returns the UNIX epoch milliseconds.
.toSeconds()	None	Int	Returns the UNIX epoch seconds.
.toString()	None	String	Returns the human readable UTC date time string.

Duration Methods (Duration)

Returned by Instant.elapsed(), the Duration object provides:

Method / Property	Returns	Description
.toMillis()	Float	Total elapsed milliseconds as a Float.
.toMilliseconds()	Float	Alias for .toMillis().
.toSeconds()	Float	Total elapsed seconds as a Float (e.g. 0.2850).
.toString()	String	Formatted duration string (e.g. 0.2850s).
.millis	Int	Whole elapsed milliseconds integer.
.nanos	Int	Whole elapsed nanoseconds integer.
.seconds	Float	Direct Float seconds value.