The 2011 Scripting Games Beginner Event 10: Use PowerShell to Measure Time to Complete a Command

Summary: Beginner Event 10 in 2011 Scripting Games uses Windows PowerShell to determine the amount of time a command takes to complete.

About this event

Event scenario

Your boss is working on a script that needs to halt execution for five seconds and then check a specific value. In the course of writing the script, your boss became concerned about the accuracy of using the Start-Sleep Windows PowerShell cmdlet to halt execution for five seconds. The script is not going to be used to control a space probe to mars, but it should be more accurate than a traditional egg timer. To be assured of the accuracy of the Start-Sleep command, your boss asks that you measure the time the Start-Sleep command takes to pause for five seconds. To check for variation, your boss wants you to take five measurements and provide the average time in milliseconds. A satisfactory output could be as simple as seen here.

Average time of 5 runs of 5 seconds is 5007.84288 milliseconds

Design points

• Extra points for the use of variables to allow for other scenarios than the one in this event
• Extra points for clean code
• Extra points for formatting output

2011 Scripting Games links

2011 Scripting Games: All Links on One Page

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Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy