from timeit import default_timer


class Timer(object):
    def __init__(self, verbose=False):
        self.verbose = verbose
        self.timer = default_timer
        
    def __enter__(self):
        self.start = self.timer()
        return self
        
    def __exit__(self, *args):
        end = self.timer()
        self.elapsed_secs = end - self.start
        self.elapsed = self.elapsed_secs * 1000  # millisecs
        if self.verbose:
            print 'elapsed time: %f ms' % self.elapsed

 To use the Timer (context manager object), invoke it using Python's `with` statement. The duration of the context (code inside your `with` block) will be timed. It uses the appropriate timer for your platform, via the `timeit` module.

Timer is used like this:

with Timer() as target:
    # block of code goes here.
    # result (elapsed time) is stored in `target` properties.

Example script:
timing a web request (HTTP GET), using the `requests` module.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import requests
from timer import Timer

url = 'https://github.com/timeline.json'

with Timer() as t:
    r = requests.get(url)
    
print 'fetched %r in %.2f millisecs' % (url, t.elapsed)

Output: 

fetched 'https://github.com/timeline.json' in 458.76 millisecs

`timer.py` in GitHub Gist form, with more examples: 

#!/usr/bin/env python
#
# Python Timer Class - Context Manager for Timing Code Blocks
# Corey Goldberg - 2012
#


from timeit import default_timer


class Timer(object):
    def __init__(self, verbose=False):
        self.verbose = verbose
        self.timer = default_timer
        
    def __enter__(self):
        self.start = self.timer()
        return self
        
    def __exit__(self, *args):
        end = self.timer()
        self.elapsed_secs = end - self.start
        self.elapsed = self.elapsed_secs * 1000 # millisecs
        if self.verbose:
            print 'elapsed time: %f ms' % self.elapsed



if __name__ == '__main__':
    # example:
    # 'HTTP GET' from requests module, inside timer blocks.
    # invoke the Timer context manager using the `with` statement.
    
    import requests
    
    url = 'https://github.com/timeline.json'
    
    # verbose (auto) timer output
    with Timer(verbose=True):
        r = requests.get(url)
    
    # print stored elapsed time in milliseconds
    with Timer() as t:
        r = requests.get(url)
    print 'response time (millisecs): %.2f' % t.elapsed
    
    # print stored elapsed time in seconds
    with Timer() as t:
        r = requests.get(url)
    print 'response time (secs): %.3f' % t.elapsed_secs


# example output:
#
# $ python timer.py
# elapsed time: 652.403831 ms
# response time (millisecs): 635.49
# response time (secs): 0.624