Help in A timer in C++

[Nisheeth]

I was making a Quiz in the Console.

I decided to add an Timer in that runs in the background, and gives the user the Time they took at the end.

This is the format of my Timer:

void Timer (void*)
{
    while(TimerOn)    //TimerOn is a Global Variable of Type bool.
    {
        TotalTime += 1;  //Another global variable of type int.
        Sleep(1);
    }
}

I added void* in the parameter list to make it compatible with the pointer with the pointer in the _beginthread function from <process.h>.

Now What I wanted to know is whether this is an effective method to get the time in Milliseconds?

[tolga gerekci]

windows ?
In windows you can use GetTickCount
it is a background timer and it tells time in milliseconds. (From windows start. )

[Nisheeth]

I guess that GetTickCount will tell the time the program has been running from the since it started?

[tolga gerekci]

no. It will tell the time since WINDOWS HAS BEEN RUNNING. But you can save it first then subtract gettickcount from saved time.

[Duthomhas]

See here for an example of how to time stuff. You don't need a separate thread.
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/28855/3/#msg159698
Hope this helps.

[Nisheeth]

@Douas:
Had a quick look at you code. I will try it out...
But what is the Header: <ciso646> for?

[Duthomhas]

operator synonyms. i tend to use them, but I don't think the timer code uses any. [so you can probably do without including it]

[Nisheeth]

What are operator Synonyms?
Googling gives me Synonyms for Operator!!!

EDIT:
There is a problem here though.
The same one I had when using ctime.
The problem is that the times starts the moment you run the program.
That was why I decided to use the above method. Any workaround for that?

[tolga gerekci]

#include "windows.h"

DWORD startTime;
 
int main()
{
   startTime = GetTickCount();

   DWORD elapsedTime;
   while(true)
   {
      elapsedTime = GetTickCount() - startTime;
      if( elapsedTime >= QUIZ_TIME_IN_MILLISECONDS ) break;
   }
}