Wrong time being returned by the timer (Both Native Functions & Timer UDF)

[TheDcoder]

Hello everyone

I am encountering a strange problem with timers... i.e wrong time difference . This is an test script made by me to compare Arrays & Maps in terms of speed, I wanted publish the results in my Maps topic, so I am hiding the question in the spoiler to prevent spoilage

Ok, Here is the script which uses Timer UDF:

#include <MsgBoxConstants.au3>
#include <Timers.au3>

Global Const $SIZE = 10000 ; Initial size of the... er... variables (objects?)
Global Const $RESIZE = $SIZE + ($SIZE / 2) ; Size to resize the variables

$iTimer = _Timer_Init()

Local $aArray[$SIZE] ; Our array with $SIZE elements
MsgBox($MB_ICONINFORMATION, "Benchmark", "Making an array with " & $SIZE & " elements took ~" & _Timer_Diff($iTimer) / 1000 & " seconds.")

$iTimer = _Timer_Init() ; Reset the timer
Local $mMap[] ; Our Map

For $i = 1 To $SIZE ; Allocate our map with $SIZE elements
    $mMap[$i] = ""
Next
MsgBox($MB_ICONINFORMATION, "Benchmark", "Making a map with " & $SIZE & " elements took ~" & _Timer_Diff($iTimer) / 1000 & " seconds.")

$iTimer = _Timer_Init() ; Reset the timer
ReDim $aArray[$RESIZE] ; Resize out array
MsgBox($MB_ICONINFORMATION, "Benchmark", "Resizing an array with " & $SIZE & " elements to " & $RESIZE & " elements took ~" & _Timer_Diff($iTimer) / 1000 & " seconds.")

$iTimer = _Timer_Init() ; Reset the timer
For $i = $SIZE To $RESIZE ; Resize our map
    $mMap[$i] = ""
Next
MsgBox($MB_ICONINFORMATION, "Benchmark", "Resizing a map with " & $SIZE & " elements to " & $RESIZE & " elements took ~" & _Timer_Diff($iTimer) / 1000 & " seconds.")

Script with native Timer functions:

#include <MsgBoxConstants.au3>
#include <Timers.au3>

Global Const $SIZE = 10000 ; Initial size of the... er... variables (objects?)
Global Const $RESIZE = $SIZE + ($SIZE / 2) ; Size to resize the variables

$hTimer = TimerInit()

Local $aArray[$SIZE] ; Our array with $SIZE elements
MsgBox($MB_ICONINFORMATION, "Benchmark", "Making an array with " & $SIZE & " elements took ~" & TimerDiff($hTimer) / 1000 & " seconds.")

$hTimer = TimerInit() ; Reset the timer
Local $mMap[] ; Our Map

For $i = 1 To $SIZE ; Allocate our map with $SIZE elements
    $mMap[$i] = ""
Next
MsgBox($MB_ICONINFORMATION, "Benchmark", "Making a map with " & $SIZE & " elements took ~" & TimerDiff($hTimer) / 1000 & " seconds.")

$hTimer = TimerInit() ; Reset the timer
ReDim $aArray[$RESIZE] ; Resize out array
MsgBox($MB_ICONINFORMATION, "Benchmark", "Resizing an array with " & $SIZE & " elements to " & $RESIZE & " elements took ~" & TimerDiff($hTimer) / 1000 & " seconds.")

$hTimer = TimerInit() ; Reset the timer
For $i = $SIZE To $RESIZE ; Resize our map
    $mMap[$i] = ""
Next
MsgBox($MB_ICONINFORMATION, "Benchmark", "Resizing a map with " & $SIZE & " elements to " & $RESIZE & " elements took ~" & TimerDiff($hTimer) / 1000 & " seconds.")

If you run the script(s), you can see that sometimes the time difference is >1 but the actual difference is almost instantaneous, I don't know what is causing the problem, I think the problem is in my end this time because I used both native and UDF functions and they return identical results... However I spotted something interesting in the documentation for TimerDiff:

"Remarks: Some processors are known to cause the function to return incorrect result."

Hmmm.... is my processor the culprit? Or is something wrong in my script...

Thanks in Advance! TD

 

P.S It was hard to write in the dark spoiler  

Edited November 16, 2015 by TheDcoder
A quote was remove from the spoiler, added the quote in "quotes" instead :P & Added Tags

[BrewManNH]

Sometimes the result is using exponents, so the >1 actually isn't greater than one, it's actually much less.

Making an array with 10000 elements took ~4.14466376513888e-005 seconds.

 

[TheDcoder]

@BrewManNH , I don't understand scientific notation very well . I tried to Round the result down to five decimals but...

Its still not calculating the scientific notation . Thanks!

[AdmiralAlkex]

It might be simpler to count how many loops you can do in x time instead of counting how long it takes to do x many loops.

Either way, I'm not sure what you're doing makes sense? You are not really comparing the same thing. You simply create and resize the array but you're creating and filling the map with empty strings. What useful is a comparison that compares 2 completely different things?

 

Edited November 17, 2015 by AdmiralAlkex
Clarified second half...

[TheDcoder]

@AdmiralAlkex I know that its not a fair test as the Map is not made for these kind of tasks, I just wanted to see if its miraculous and is close to arrays even in a unfair test

 

P.S I am not going to publish it anymore because the test failed.

[BrewManNH]

@BrewManNH , I don't understand scientific notation very well . I tried to Round the result down to five decimals but...

In this case the number, without using scientific notation, would be .00003763 seconds the e-005 tells you to move the decimal point 5 places to the left.

Edited November 17, 2015 by BrewManNH

[TheDcoder]

@BrewManHN Ah, thanks for the info