How do I wait a specified length of time in a VB routine?

Thread.Sleep(Number of Seconds)
e.g
Thread.Sleep(6000)

I would recommend something more like the following. Calling DoEvents every half second or so lets the system process events like repainting the screen of the application.

At the top of your module declare the Windows kernal library sleep function
private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" Alias "Sleep" (byval dwMilliseconds as Long)

Sub MySleep(ByVal hours as int, ByVal mins as int, ByVal secs as int)
   ResumeTime = Now + TimeSerial(hours,mins, secs)
   Do While Now < ResumeTime
      Sleep(500)
      DoEvents
   Loop
End Sub

If you "halt a routine", you would of course render your database inoperative for that length of time - in other words, you really couldn't do anything else with the database. You could of course work with other applications and such.

Is that what you want to do?

VB6 or VB.Net?

VB6 use a plain old Timer control and process the Timer event.

VB.Net use a TimerCallback
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.threading.timercallback.aspx

LSMConsulting:

OK for database to be dedicated solely to this function until completed

Simpsol:

Is this really all there is to it? Such a simple solution-great!.

simpsol:

apparently there is more to it - do you have sample code hat you can share?

You would need to include code in the routine to suspend all other app-level processing until the time had passed.

You could do that like this:

Sub YourSub()

<code here>

Dim dNow As Date
Dim dStart As Date
dStart = Now

Do
  If DateAdd("n", 60, dStart) > Now Then Exit Do
  DoEvents
Loop

<rest of your sub's code here>

If you're doing this on a Form, you should make that form Modal (in the object's properties), otherwise the user could move away from that form and run other processes in the database.

BTW, you don't need the "Dim dNow etc" line ... I forgot and left that one in!

If you want to wait fot 60 minutes (sorry I did not take the 60 minutes literally in your original post) then the best option would be to create a service which goes to sleep for 60 minutes that way no UI is requried and you can do other things with the database in the meantime if needed.

tpayn:

Yes, I am using Microsoft Access 2007 and I want to run the current request ASAP, so your solution looks simple enough for now & I understand your warnings - time later to go back and do it a better way. However, when I insert the 2 lines of code you provided, I get a compile error when I try to execute.

tpayn:

Sorry - I just had the declare statement mispositioned. Works fine now. Thank you very much for your help.