Language Reference > Function Reference > Date and Time > Second

3.3.2.55 Second

This command performs timer-related operations.

1 Syntax:
2 Options:
3 Examples:

Syntax:

second  [option] [argument]

This command performs timer-related operations.

Options:

no option; Start timer

Start a timer from zero. This timer is independent from any timer started by sec -ab.

-ab; Start timer (8.0/SR5)

Syntax: sec -ab

Starts a timer. Use sec -ae and sec -at to stop the timer started by sec -ab.

Same behavior as sec or sec -i, but uses a more precise method. A timer started with sec -ab is independent of a timer started by the sec command, or reset by sec -i.

-ae; Stop timer (elapsed) (8.0/SR5)

Syntax: sec -ae variable

Put the elapsed time in seconds since sec -ab or last issue of the sec -ae command into variable.

-at; Stop timer (total) (8.0/SR5)

Syntax: sec -at variable

Put the elapsed time in seconds since last sec -ab call into variable, ignoring any sec -ae commands.

-e; Get the elapsed time

Syntax: sec -e variable

Get the elapsed time from the last time the sec command was issued.

The time resolution of the sec -e option is about 15ms. Sec -e is called by the watch macro such that:

sec;
 ... script;
sec -e v1;
v1=;

Gives the same result as:

sec;
... script;
watch;

provided the script being executed is identical.

-i; Reset the timer to zero

Syntax: sec -i

Reset the timer to zero.

-p; Pause for the specified number of seconds

Syntax: sec -p sec

Pause for the specified number of seconds. The current script is suspended and then continued after the time elapses. During this period, all other processes continue to execute.

-poc; Pause up to the specified number of seconds to wait for Origin OC startup compiling to finish

Syntax: sec -poc sec

(Origin 8 SR4) Pause up to the specified number of seconds to wait for Origin OC startup compiling to finish.

To check if Origin C environment is ready, you can use run.isOCready(), as shown below:

sec -poc 3;
if(run.isOCready() == 0) {
  type "waited 3 sec, but OC is still not ready, or it just failed";
  break 1;
}
type "ok, can continue now";

This is very useful when you need to run some X-Function when Origin starts, as there is a separate thread that loads and prepare Origin C which might take a fraction of a second, but neverthless the main thread will still need to wait during that time.

-pw GraphName; Wait for graph to finish redrawing

Syntax: sec -pw GraphName

Pause execution of remaining lines until GraphName has finished redrawing.

Minimum Origin Version Required: 9.0 SR0

-sn; Prevent Windows sleep

Syntax: sec -sn

sec -sn to prevent Windows sleep; and sec -sn 0 to allow sleep

-w; Pause for the specified number of seconds

Syntax: sec -w sec

Pause for the specified number of seconds. Similar to the -p option but does not allow other processes to run.

Examples:

Example 1 The following script measures script execution time:

def HowLong {
sec;  //get current system time
%1;
//execute script typed as argument to HowLong macro
sec -e time;
//get elapsed time since the sec command
type (Elapsed time = $(time) sec.);
//type time to Script window
}