# microtime

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

microtime — Return current Unix timestamp with microseconds

### Description

mixed microtime ([ bool `$get_as_float` ] )

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`

  When called without the optional argument, this function returns the string "msec sec" where sec is the current time measured in the number of seconds since the Unix Epoch (0:00:00 January 1, 1970 GMT), and msec is the microseconds part. Both portions of the string are returned in units of seconds.

  If the optional `get_as_float` is set to `TRUE` then a float (in seconds) is returned.

### ChangeLog

Version | Description
--- | ---
5.0.0 | The `get_as_float` parameter was added.

### Examples

Example#1 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";
?>`

Example#2 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";
?>`

### See Also

- time()