use Time::HiRes qw(gettimeofday); $one = gettimeofday; print STDOUT "one = $one\n"; ($sec,$milli) = gettimeofday; print STDOUT "sec = $sec, milli = $milli\n"; $milli2 = sprintf("%.*s", 3, $milli); print STDOUT "sec = $sec, milli = $milli, milli2 = $milli2\n"; $time = join ('',$sec,$milli2); print STDOUT "time = $time\n"; Output: one = 1227582343.55258 sec = 1227582343, milli = 552702 sec = 1227582343, milli = 552702, milli2 = 552 time = 1227582343552