Updated April 4, 2023
Introduction to Timer in C#
Timer in C# is one of the best features available in the programming world. Timer plays a vital role in the development of software programs at both server and client-side. They are mainly used to trigger an event at a specific interval of time without any other interference. Timer works in the background because it doesn’t have any visual representation. Therefore, we can use a timer object when we do check over code or perform any event at a fixed time as we can schedule animation sequences by increasing or decreasing time speed with help of time in C #.
Syntax of Timer in C#
Let us have a look at the syntax of representing timer in C#:
timer = new System.Timers.Timer(3000) ;Here we have created a timer object for 3 seconds. After creating a timer object we can set the timer for the elapsed event after that we can start the timer through below syntax.
timer.Elapsed += OnTimedEvent ;
timer.Enabled = true ;To precisely understand the working, implementation, and functionalities of Timers in C # given below are the explained examples of Timer functions.
Examples to Implement Timer in C#
Below are the example of C# code to demonstrate the working of timers:
Example #1
Code:
using System ;
using System.Timers ;
class Timer_Example
{
public static void Main()
{
Timer newTimer = new Timer() ;
newTimer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(DisplayTimeEvent ) ;
newTimer.Interval = 2000 ;
newTimer.Start() ;
while ( Console.Read() != 'q' )
{
; // we can write anything here if we want, leaving this part blank won’t bother the code execution.
}
}
public static void DisplayTimeEvent( object source, ElapsedEventArgs e )
{
Console.Write( " \r{0} " , DateTime.Now ) ;
}
}Output:
In the above code, we have declared a class Timer_Example to demonstrate the basic functionality and working of timers in C#. After that, we are declaring a new timer by giving a name newTimer. So using this newTimer we are calling the elapsed and Interval functionality of the timer function. We have already set the timer value to 2 seconds then we are initializing the timer function until the while condition holds true. Once we call the DateTime.now the output screen will display the date and time.
Example #2
Code:
using System ;
using System.Timers ;
public class Test_Timers {
private static Timer timer ;
public static void Main() {
timer = new System.Timers.Timer() ;
timer.Interval = 6000 ;
timer.Elapsed += OnTimedEvent ;
timer.AutoReset = true ;
timer.Enabled = true ;
Console.WriteLine( " Please enter any key to exit from the code anytime... " ) ;
Console.ReadLine() ;
}
private static void OnTimedEvent(Object source, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e) {
Console.WriteLine( " Event : {0} " , e.SignalTime ) ;
}
}Output:
In the above code, we have declared a class named “ Test_Timers “ in which we have declared one private static Timer named “timer” and in the public static main we have set timer equals to new timers with a time interval of 6 seconds. Through onTimedEvent method, we can print the date along with time which we keep on printing status every 6 seconds until the condition holds true. As you can see in the output the gap between the two events in 6 seconds and it will keep on repeating until the condition is true.
Example #3
Code:
using System ;
using System.Collections.Generic ;
using System.Timers ;
static class DemoTimers
{
static Timer time ;
static List <DateTime> output = new List <DateTime> () ;
public static void Start()
var timer = new Timer(5000) ;
timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(Elapsed_time ) ;
timer.Enabled = true ;
time = timer ;
}
static void Elapsed_time( object sender , ElapsedEventArgs e )
{
otuput.Add(DateTime.Now) ;
}
public static void PrintTimes()
{
if ( otuput.Count> 0 )
{
Console.WriteLine( " TIMERS : " ) ;
foreach ( var time in otuput )
{
Console.Write(time.ToShortTimeString() + " " ) ;
}
Console.WriteLine() ;
}
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main()
{ DemoTimers.Start() ;
while ( true )
{
DemoTimers.PrintTimes() ;
Console.WriteLine( " WAITING To Print" ) ;
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep( 2000 ) ;
}
}
}Output:
In the above code, you can see we are using System.Collections.Generic, using System.Timers classes so that we can use their functionalities. We declared one static class DemoTimers in which we created a static timer with name time and after that, we have created one static list also with name DateTime and it will be stored in output. To start using timers in our code we are creating one method Start () in that we are setting the timer for 5 seconds then we are adding elapsed event handler and then we have to set the condition true.
One more method with name Elapsed_time in which we can add date and time for each possible event, it will help in finding out the current time and date for the event. Then we have declared one more method named PrintTimes of void type. With the help of this method, w can print all the set of recorded time. If the condition is added and it will keep printing the TIMERS until and unless the condition is true. As it will print for each var time in the output list.
Finally, we have created a class called Program inside which static void main is declared then we are starting the timer class. We are calling PrintTimes function after every 3 seconds then if while condition holds true it will keep on printing results after 3 seconds f break between every event occurred.
Conclusion
with the help of the timer class, a programmer can regular invokes code within several minutes or seconds of time. Therefore, to monitor the overall quality of the program timers is used to monitor the program. It’s a static class so it can not have instance members.
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