DOCUMENTATION CENTER SEARCH

Mathematica > Evaluation Control >

TimeConstrained

Updated In 6 Graphic

TimeConstrained[expr, t]
evaluates expr, stopping after t seconds.

TimeConstrained[expr, t, failexpr]
returns failexpr if the time constraint is not met.

MORE INFORMATION

TimeConstrained generates an interrupt to abort the evaluation of expr if the evaluation is not completed within the specified time.

TimeConstrained evaluates failexpr only if the evaluation is aborted.

TimeConstrained returns $Aborted if the evaluation is aborted and no failexpr is specified.

TimeConstrained is accurate only down to a granularity of at least $TimeUnit seconds.

Aborts generated by TimeConstrained are treated just like those generated by Abort, and can thus be overruled by AbortProtect.

TimeConstrained[expr, Infinity] imposes no time constraint.

TimeConstrained may give different results on different occasions within a single session, for example as a result of different conditions of internal system caches.

TimeConstrained takes account only of CPU time spent inside the main Mathematica kernel process; it does not include additional threads or processes.

Basic Examples (2)

Terminate a computation if it takes more than 1 second:

Terminate a computation if it takes more than 2 seconds:

With the default method, it gets a (not quite as accurate) solution within the time constraint:

MemoryConstrained AbsoluteTiming Timing Check Interrupt $IterationLimit $RecursionLimit Pause Abort TimeConstraint

Date and Time Functions

New in 1 | Last modified in 6

© 2008 Wolfram Research, Inc.

Ask a question about this page | Suggest an improvement | Leave a message for the team