What is the Python equivalent of Matlab’s tic and toc functions?

Apart from timeit which ThiefMaster mentioned, a simple way to do it is just (after importing time):

t = time.time()
# do stuff
elapsed = time.time() - t

I have a helper class I like to use:

class Timer(object):
    def __init__(self, name=None):
        self.name = name

    def __enter__(self):
        self.tstart = time.time()

    def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):
        if self.name:
            print('[%s]' % self.name,)
        print('Elapsed: %s' % (time.time() - self.tstart))

It can be used as a context manager:

with Timer('foo_stuff'):
   # do some foo
   # do some stuff

Sometimes I find this technique more convenient than timeit – it all depends on what you want to measure.