how do i update time in my program? - pygame

Question

i am totally new to python. thus please explain thoroughly wen u respond to my query.
in my code i want to measure the time the player lasts before his cursor touches the bouncing ball on the screen but the time i am obtaining is the sum of all the seconds since the first time the command was initialised. i need to stop the counting of seconds as soon as the user ends the game and to begin afresh wen the play again option is chosen...
also i wud lyk a way to make the player qualify for the next level without usin d detection of position of mouse....since dat is making the program code logic incorrect...
here is my code:
import pygame,sys
from pygame.locals import*
from pygame import *
import random
def main():
# set up sounds
# import pygame
#gameOverSound = pygame.mixer.Sound('gameover.wav')
#pygame.mixer.music.load('background.mid')
#from pygame import *
#import random
#pygame.mixer.pre_init(44100, 16, 2, 4096)
#background =image.load('C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\oearth.png')
ballpic = image.load('ball1.png')
ballpic.set_colorkey((0,0,0))
#find a way to include verification of more than one colour key
# to add more than one shape....pending
numballs = 10
delay = 5
done = False
balls = []
stars = []
#generate an if loop for execution of both the parts
k = 2
init()
screen = display.set_mode((640, 480))
display.set_caption('mouse game by shivangi and ananya')
event.set_grab(1)
#pygame.time.Clock() Creates a Clock object (assign this to a name), which you can then call the tick() method on
#to find out how much time has passed since the last time you called tick()
#pygame.time.delay(milliseconds) Pauses game for time specified
#pygame.time.get_ticks() Returns the number of milliseconds passed since pygame.init() was #called
for count in range(numballs):
balls.append(dict)
balls[count] = {'x': 0, 'y': 0, 'xmove': random.randint(1, 2), 'ymove': random.randint(1, 2)}
screen = display.set_mode((640, 480)) #####screen = display.set_mode((640,480),FULLSCREEN,32).....check functioning...
#pygame.display.list_modes()
#[(800, 600), (1280, 1024), (1280, 960), (1280, 800), (1280, 768), (1280, 720),
#(1152, 864), (1088, 612), (1024, 768), (960, 600), (848, 480), (800, 600),
#(720, 576), (720, 480), (640, 480), (640, 400), (512, 384), (480, 360), (400, 300),
#(320, 240), (320, 200), (640, 480)]
while done == False:
pygame.time.Clock()
init()
screen.fill((0,100,0))
for count in range(numballs):
screen.blit(ballpic, (balls[count]['x'], balls[count]['y']))
display.update()
time.delay(delay)
for count in range(numballs):
balls[count]['x'] = balls[count]['x'] + balls[count]['xmove']
balls[count]['y'] = balls[count]['y'] + balls[count]['ymove']
for count in range(numballs):
if balls[count]['x'] > 620:
balls[count]['xmove'] = random.randint(-2, 0)
if balls[count]['x'] < -10:
balls[count]['xmove'] = random.randint(0, 6)
if balls[count]['y'] > 470:
balls[count]['ymove'] = random.randint(-9, 0)
if balls[count]['y'] < -10:
balls[count]['ymove'] = random.randint(0, 5)
for e in event.get():
if e.type == KEYUP:
if e.key == K_ESCAPE:
done = True
if screen.get_at((mouse.get_pos())) == (227,209,43):
done = True
if done == True:
#pygame.mixer.init()
break
sec = time.get_ticks()/1000
quit()
while sec < k:
print "you lasted for only",sec,"seconds...try again to qualify for the next level..."
quit()
break
time_lasted = 0
while sec >= k:
starpic = image.load('star.png')
starpic.set_colorkey((0,0,0))
#find a way to include verification of more than one colour key...PENDING
numstars = 30
delay = 8
done = False
stars = []
for count in range(numstars):
stars.append(dict)
stars[count] = {'x': 0, 'y': 0, 'xmove': random.randint(1, 2), 'ymove': random.randint(1, 2)}
screen = display.set_mode((640, 480))
display.set_caption('mouse game')
event.set_grab(1)
while done == False:
init()
screen.fill((160,32,240))
for count in range(numstars):
screen.blit(starpic, (stars[count]['x'], stars[count]['y']))
display.update()
time.delay(delay)
for count in range(numstars):
stars[count]['x'] = stars[count]['x'] + stars[count]['xmove']
stars[count]['y'] = stars[count]['y'] + stars[count]['ymove']
for count in range(numstars):
if stars[count]['x'] > 620:
stars[count]['xmove'] = random.randint(-2, 0)
if stars[count]['x'] < -10:
stars[count]['xmove'] = random.randint(0, 2)
if stars[count]['y'] > 470:
stars[count]['ymove'] = random.randint(-2, 0)
if stars[count]['y'] < -10:
stars[count]['ymove'] = random.randint(0, 2)
for e in event.get():
if e.type == KEYUP:
if e.key == K_ESCAPE:
done = True
if screen.get_at((mouse.get_pos())) == (255,255,255,255):
done = True
if done == True:
time_lasted = time.get_ticks()/1000
quit()
break
#sec = time.update()
#time_lasted = time.update()
#correction of time error to be done....pending....
quit()
print "You lasted for", sec, "seconds in the first level!"
print "\n"
print "you lasted for",time_lasted,"in the second level!"
print "\n"
print "your total score is :", int(sec) + int(time_lasted)
print "\n"
print "game over...! Thank you for playing!! :D :P :)"
quit()
break
main()
x = 1
x = raw_input("Do you want to play again?")
while x.upper() in ['YES','Y']:
main()
x = raw_input("Do you want to play again?")
while x.upper() in ['NO','N']:
break

Answer 1

# when player starts game
start = time.get_ticks()
# during game
current = time.get_ticks()
time_you_played = (current - start)/1000
EDIT:
Timer to count seconds.
class Timer():
def __init__(self):
self._start = 0
def start(self):
self._start = pygame.time.get_ticks()
def current(self):
return (pygame.time.get_ticks() - self._start)/1000
Example - how to use:
import pygame
# add class Timer here
pygame.init()
t = Timer()
t.start() # start or restart timer
pygame.time.wait(3000) # for test only
print t.current() # print seconds
pygame.time.wait(2000) # for test only
print t.current() # print seconds
You don't have to stop timer because you can use start() to restart timer.