asked on

Sleep / Wait in Javascript

Hi,

I want to wait few seconds between 2 operations in javascript.
Is there a way to do it (something like sleep in Java or wait in c)?

I'm using the setTimeout(), but the problem is that sometimes I have problems with timeout intervals that are bigger than 600 ms. (Have any idea why?)

Thanks,
Efrat

T-Rex

setTimeout('action()',2000);

2000 is two seconds

Greetz,
T-Rex

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

hongjun

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

efratb

ASKER

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response, but as I mentioned in the question, sometimes when I use big intervals (more than 600 ms) I don't get to the timer function. Only if I lower the interval time the action is being performed.

hongjun

It is quite strange as to what you are encountering. 500ms is not even 1 sec. Post your code here.

hongjun

efratb

ASKER

Hi Hongjun,

I used to activate the actions after a button was pressed from the onClick command.
(For example: onClick="javascript:stat(); window.setTimeout('openGraph()', 2000);"

Your example made me try something a bit different:
From the onClick I call only to the stat function and from there I call the setTimeout.
I don't understand why, but it worked! (Do you have any idea why?)

Anyway, the points are yours...
Thanks very much for your help,

robysath

I don't know if this will still be useful to you or not:

When you run stat(); javascript executes the function and only once the function has finished will it wait 2 seconds before calling openGraph(). So what happens is this:

run stat()....stat() finished.
wait 2 seconds.
run openGraph().... openGraph() finished.

And this is why you never got to see the openGraph function run while stat was running.

I can also tell you why it works after you've inserted the openGraph() call inside of the stat() call: Remember that when you call a function (like stat()) javascript will wait for that function to finish before continuing. However when you say window.setTimeout(blah(),2000) then javascript will remember to run the blah function after 2 seconds -- and instead of waiting right there it continues running the remaining lines of code!

So in your new code this is happening:

run stat(), run openGraph() after 2 seconds but continue running stat()...

After 2 seconds both functions will be running at the same time!!

Hope that solved the mystery for you (assuming you ever read this again).

terabit_ca

Just for completeness check out this site. It Implements a sleep function in JavaScript in a couple different ways. This site shows why it is not possible to create a true sleep function in JavaScript (at least not one that will work on all popular browsers).

http://www.devcheater.com - javascript sleep