# Microtime / Milliseconds?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/microtime-milliseconds/65983>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 22, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/microtime-milliseconds/65983 "2006-08-22T19:23:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/microtime-milliseconds/65983/1 "2006-08-22T19:23:05Z")

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How do I get more precision that seconds in ruby? If I wanted to know 1  
millisecond passed how would I do this?

Thanks for your help.

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**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/microtime-milliseconds/65983/2 "2006-08-22T19:28:57Z")

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On Aug 22, 2006, at 12:23 PM, Ben J. wrote:

> How do I get more precision that seconds in ruby? If I wanted to  
> know 1  
> millisecond passed how would I do this?

> > start = Time.now  
> > =\> Tue Aug 22 12:25:24 CDT 2006
> 
> > elapsed = start - Time.now  
> > =\> -16.744711

The fractional portion is fractional seconds. Hope that helps.

James Edward G. II

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@benjohnson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/benjohnson)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/microtime-milliseconds/65983/3 "2006-08-22T19:31:01Z")

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On Wed, 23 Aug 2006, Ben J. wrote:

> How do I get more precision that seconds in ruby? If I wanted to know 1  
> millisecond passed how would I do this?
> 
> Thanks for your help.

a = Time.now.to\_f

b = Time.now.to\_f

p(b - a)

also there’s Time.now.usec

-a