[erlang-questions] Lockfree now()

[Wojtek Narczyński]

On 07/13/2012 10:35 AM, Erik Søe Sørensen wrote:
> Oh, but you do have a choice between more than one time source in Erlang:
> now() - as known, for microsecond-precision and uniqueness
> erlang:universaltime() and friends - for second-precision and YMD-HMS 
> format.
> os:timestamp() - for microsecond-precision but without uniqueness and 
> time correction.
>

I didn't know that. Not that I ever looked thoroughly...

> For many places where you could use now() but simply need a timestamp 
> for logging or the like, os:timestamp() might be more appropriate and 
> a bit more lightweight. Its return type is compatible with that of now().

I just replaced calendar:now_to_datetime(erlang:now()) with 
erlang:universaltime() in logging code and gained 13% performance. And 
that machine is only dual-core.

--Regards,
Wojtek