sampling interval

Performance Engineering

Meaning

The sampling interval is the time elapsed between consecutive samples in a discrete signal or measurement process. It determines the resolution of temporal data and is the inverse of the sampling rate.

Primary Function

Timing control

Communicative Purpose

Specifies how often to take measurements or execute periodic actions in software systems.

Pattern

time.sleep(delay)

Core Structure

time.sleep(...)

Função primária

Timing control

Propósito comunicativo

Specifies how often to take measurements or execute periodic actions in software systems.

Situações de gatilho

reading sensor data at regular intervals, implementing a simulation timestep, polling hardware status

Contextos

embedded systems, signal processing, data acquisition, real-time simulations

Padrão

time.sleep(delay)

Estrutura central

time.sleep(...)

Slots de substituição

delay: numeric time duration (e.g., seconds, milliseconds)

Colocados típicos

sensor reading loop
data acquisition
real-time task scheduler

Substituições comuns

asyncio.sleep(delay) in async code
using a timer object or scheduler

Erros comuns

confusing sampling interval with sampling rate (interval = 1/rate), using integer values causing loss of precision, setting interval too short leading to excessive CPU usage

Similar / contraste

sampling rate (frequency) – the number of samples per second; higher rate means shorter interval

Interferências

Coming from C/C++: may favor busy‑wait loops instead of sleep, leading to CPU waste; coming from MATLAB: may think of sampling interval as a vector spacing rather than a time delay.

Família do chunk

sampling rate
polling loop
timer callback

Nuance

Too small an interval can overload the system; too large may miss transient events. Choose based on Nyquist criterion for signal processing or application latency requirements.

Efeito pragmático

Ensures predictable periodic execution without blocking other threads, reducing jitter and resource contention.

Dica de memória

Think of a metronome: each tick happens after the sampling interval.

Nota

Using time.sleep introduces drift because the sleep duration does not account for execution time of the loop body; for high‑precision timing consider a monotonic clock or a dedicated timer.

Upgrade path

Use a periodic timer or real‑time scheduler (e.g., POSIX timerfd, asyncio.create_task with sleep) for drift‑free timing.

Frequência: HighFormulaicidade: FlexibleTipo de construção: conceptPrioridade de aquisição: Recognition firstPrioridade de output: BothTag de espaçamento: Medium-term

Examples

import time def read_sensor(): # placeholder for sensor read logic print("sensor value") while True: read_sensor() time.sleep(0.1) # sampling interval of 100 ms

import threading import time def periodic_task(): print("tick", time.time()) # reschedule itself threading.Timer(0.5, periodic_task).start() # start the first tick periodic_task() # keep the main thread alive for demonstration time.sleep(3)

import asyncio async def poll_hardware(): while True: print("polling hardware") await asyncio.sleep(0.2) # sampling interval asyncio.run(poll_hardware())