The MercuryTimers object enables measurement of time between any two operations. Unlike the native VBScript Timer function, the MercuryTimers object supports the utilization of multiple timer_name time measurement transactions in parallel. In essence, the Timers object is a kind of Dictionary that can store different Timer objects, each with a unique key. This can be useful to measure the time elapsed at different levels of the run session, and hence, identify possible bottlenecks caused by specific blocks of code.
The MercuryTimers object provides the following methods to use with a Timer object:
It also provides the ElapsedTime property, which can be used to report, as well as synchronization.
Suppose we wish to measure the time taken to perform a complex task, such as a call to a function that validates the data in a Web table. The syntax to instantiate a Timer object with the MercuryTimers collection is as follows:
Set timer_var = MercuryTimers.Timer("timer_name")However, it is possible to instantiate the Timer object by simply invoking its Start method:
MercuryTimers.Timer("timer_name").StartAll methods listed previously are used with this syntax.
In the following example, we have added time measurements to the previously discussed procedure to close a process by its ID:
MercuryTimers.Timer("Notepad").Start
SystemUtil.Run "notepad.exe"
pID_Notepad = Window("regexpwndtitle:=Notepad").GetROProperty("process id")
Print MercuryTimers.Timer("Notepad").ElapsedTime
Print pID_Notepad
Print SystemUtil.CloseProcessByid(pID_Notepad)
Print MercuryTimers.Timer("Notepad").ElapsedTime
MercuryTimers.Timer("Notepad").StopAs mentioned previously, the MercuryTimers object is actually a collection of zero or more Timer objects, which we can instantiate during runtime. Each object named Timer contributes to the clarity of the code (as opposed to variables using the native VBScript Timer function) and work in parallel to the script (asynchronous mode). This means, once we instantiate a Timer object and invoke its Start method, it works in the background, and the script can continue to run. Using the ElapsedTime property, we can check or report the state of affairs. The Continue, Reset, and Stop methods are self-evident and do not require further explanation with regard to their function. However, it is important to note when we might use them. Suppose that we wish to isolate the net time of a function A that calls another auxiliary, function B. We might then wish to start a timer in function A, and stop it just before calling function B (which would have its own timer), then resume the timer in function A after returning from function B.