Measuring time between keystrokes in python

Question

Using the following code:

   >>> import time
   >>> start = time.time()
   >>> end = time.time()
   >>> end - start


        

Answer 1

A simple way you could do that is:

from time import time
begin = time.time()
raw_input() #this is when you start typing
#this would be after you hit enter
end = time.time()
elapsed = end - begin
print elapsed
#it will tell you how long it took you to type your name

Answer 2

On Windows you can you msvcrt.kbhit() to tell when a key has been pressed. See http://effbot.org/librarybook/msvcrt.htm for a worked-out example.

Answer 3

This will work (on some systems!):

import termios, sys, time
def getch(inp=sys.stdin):
    old = termios.tcgetattr(inp)
    new = old[:]
    new[-1] = old[-1][:]
    new[3] &= ~(termios.ECHO | termios.ICANON)
    new[-1][termios.VMIN] = 1
    try:
        termios.tcsetattr(inp, termios.TCSANOW, new)
        return inp.read(1)
    finally:
        termios.tcsetattr(inp, termios.TCSANOW, old)


inputstr = ''
while '\n' not in inputstr:
    c = getch()
    if not inputstr: t = time.time()
    inputstr += c
elapsed = time.time() - t

See this answer for nonblocking console input on other systems.