microseconds

mrblom

Is there a function I can use to get seconds in microseconds.

Say...

The time is:
17_32_34

now i want to have 34 as microseconds.

I\'m gonna use it to give a file a unique name.

Thanks
Kristian

rrijnders

http://www.phpbuilder.com/manual/function.gettimeofday.php

[deleted]

that, plus
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.microtime.php

plus a small warning that's allmost irrelevant: microtime gives a time with a resolution of 1/1000th of a second. So theoretically you can still get duplicate values here. Flipping unlikely, but not impossible.

Anon

Thanks guys!

Vincent:
I've thought about it, and yes its'possible.
Do you have a better way maybe?`

Kristian

rrijnders

You can still use it; I do it for a couple of clients, but I check for a file with the same name before I create it.

-- Rich

[deleted]

That's a very simple solution to the problem.

If the foile already exists, just fetch a fresh value.

Note: this works because the timestamp generates a new unique number every microsecond.

This would NOT work if you used a random number from a random-number-generator, like mt_rand(), because that generates random numbers, and random != unique.
Random just gives you one value out of Xmillion possibilites, which means it could choose the same number 50 times in a row (unlikely but possible). The more files you have, the bigger the chance of choosing a duplicate filename. This does not happen with timestamps.

A forum, a FAQ, what else do you need?