In a typical Stopwatch scenario, you call the Start method, then eventually call the Stop method, and then you check elapsed time using the Elapsed property.

Use the Elapsed property to retrieve the elapsed time value using TimeSpan methods and properties. For example, you can format the returned TimeSpan instance into a text representation, or pass it to another class that requires a TimeSpan parameter.

You can query the properties Elapsed, ElapsedMilliseconds, and ElapsedTicks while the Stopwatch instance is running or stopped. The elapsed time properties steadily increase while the Stopwatch is running; they remain constant when the instance is stopped.

By default, the elapsed time value of a Stopwatch instance equals the total of all measured time intervals. Each call to Start begins counting at the cumulative elapsed time; each call to Stop ends the current interval measurement and freezes the cumulative elapsed time value. Use the Reset method to clear the cumulative elapsed time in an existing Stopwatch instance.

The following example demonstrates how to use the Elapsed property to determine the execution time for an application.

Imports System
Imports System.Diagnostics
Imports System.Threading


Class Program

    Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)
        Dim stopWatch As New Stopwatch()
        stopWatch.Start()
        Thread.Sleep(10000)
        stopWatch.Stop()
        ' Get the elapsed time as a TimeSpan value.
        Dim ts As TimeSpan = stopWatch.Elapsed

        ' Format and display the TimeSpan value.
        Dim elapsedTime As String = String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}.{3:00}", ts.Hours, ts.Minutes, ts.Seconds, ts.Milliseconds / 10)
        Console.WriteLine(elapsedTime, "RunTime")

    End Sub 'Main
End Class 'Program

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading;
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Stopwatch stopWatch = new Stopwatch();
        stopWatch.Start();
        Thread.Sleep(10000);
        stopWatch.Stop();
        // Get the elapsed time as a TimeSpan value.
        TimeSpan ts = stopWatch.Elapsed;

        // Format and display the TimeSpan value.
        string elapsedTime = String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}.{3:00}",
            ts.Hours, ts.Minutes, ts.Seconds,
            ts.Milliseconds / 10);
        Console.WriteLine(elapsedTime, "RunTime");
    }
}

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

.NET Framework

.NET Compact Framework

XNA Framework

Reference