Simple Ruby stopwatch

stopwatch.rb

class Stopwatch
 
  def initialize()
    @start = Time.now
  end
   
  def elapsed_time
    now = Time.now
    elapsed = now - @start
    puts 'Started: ' + @start.to_s
    puts 'Now: ' + now.to_s
    puts 'Elapsed time: ' +  elapsed.to_s + ' seconds'
    elapsed.to_s
  end
   
end

## Usage

s = Stopwatch.new
sleep(2)
puts s.elapsed_time

## Output
# Started: Tue Sep 03 11:44:48 +0100 2013
# Now: Tue Sep 03 11:44:50 +0100 2013
# Elapsed time: 2.000997 seconds
# 2.000997

Works like a charm! (I'm running through 'Mazes for Programmers' by Jamis Buck, for some fun today, and wanted to test times of some of the algorithms for solving mazes).

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

It's very good, however I think you should use Process.clock_gettime(Process::CLOCK_MONOTONIC) instead of Time.now as explaines in:
https://blog.dnsimple.com/2018/03/elapsed-time-with-ruby-the-right-way/

I've forked a version using it if you're interested: https://gist.github.com/x4d3/d41e8050caf0f7afbf10e618f64e7a22

Thank you, love it. I'm a beginner to ruby, I do not understand the line 22 sleep(2).

I had to stare at this for, like, 20 minutes before it made sense to me.
The 'sleep(2) really messed with me.

If I understand correctly:
right after 's = Stopwatch.new'
'def initialize()' comes into play where
'@start' is assigned whatever the current time is, via 'Time.now'
'@start' holds that value while,
'sleep(2) elapses 2 seconds, then
'elapsed_time' is called
From there, it's just subtracting the original time stored in @start,
from whatever the current time is, derived from 'now = Time.now'