the result is digits long took seconds to calculate note another way to profile your code is to use the cprofile run(functionwhich provides much more informative level of detail than the simple time time(technique the cprofile run(function is explained at /profile html the return value from time time(is usefulbut not human-readable the time ctime(function returns string description of the current time you can also optionally pass the number of seconds since the unix epochas returned by time time()to get string value of that time enter the following into the interactive shellimport time time ctime('mon jun : : thismoment time time(time ctime(thismoment'mon jun : : the time sleep(function if you need to pause your program for whilecall the time sleep(function and pass it the number of seconds you want your program to stay paused enter the following into the interactive shellimport time for in range( ) print('tick' time sleep( print('tock' time sleep( tick tock tick tock tick tock time sleep( the for loop will print tick upause for second vprint tock wpause for second xprint tickpauseand so on until tick and tock have each been printed three times keeping timescheduling tasksand launching programs