Is there a way to measure a time spent for simulation? Does Q# support something like this?

Question

I want to measure the time spent for simulation of different algorithms to make some assumption about their efficiency.

I use Microsoft Azure Quantum SDK and VS Code setup.

Answer 1

You can get the time spent in simulation (or resource estimation) from a Python wrapper for the Q# code. You'll need to create either a Jupyter Notebook with both Q# and Python code or a Python host for Q# code, and wrap the call to qsharp.eval or qsharp.run (or qsharp.estimate) in Python time-handling routines:

from datetime import datetime
start_time = datetime.now()
qsharp.eval("YourEntryPoint()")
end_time = datetime.now()
print(f"Simulation time: {end_time - start_time}")

I don't think there's a way to get simulation time when running Q#-only file in VS Code using "Run Q# file" command. (That could be an interesting improvement suggestion to file at https://github.com/microsoft/qsharp/issues)