1ms timer calling functions

Hi,
For testing purposes I have this timer that calls a function every 1ms and adds +1 to a counter. This code works perfectly fine as its calling windows native code but is there anything in the .NET framework even close to 1ms or shall I stick to using native calls?

Public Class Form1
    Dim mHandler As TimerEventHandler
    Dim iCount As Long = 0
    Dim mTimerId As Integer

    <DllImport("winmm.dll")>
    Private Shared Function timeSetEvent(delay As Integer, resolution As Integer, handler As TimerEventHandler, user As IntPtr, eventType As Integer) As Integer
    End Function

    <DllImport("winmm.dll")>
    Private Shared Function timeBeginPeriod(millisecond As Integer) As Integer
    End Function

    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        timeBeginPeriod(1)
        mHandler = New TimerEventHandler(AddressOf TimerCallback)
        mTimerId = timeSetEvent(1, 0, mHandler, IntPtr.Zero, 1)
    End Sub

    Private Delegate Sub TimerEventHandler(id As Integer, msg As Integer, user As IntPtr, dw1 As Integer, dw2 As Integer)
    Private Sub TimerCallback(id As Integer, msg As Integer, user As IntPtr, dw1 As Integer, dw2 As Integer)
        iCount += 1
    End Sub
End Class

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LVL 30

anarki_jimbelSenior DeveloperCommented: 2016-08-09

It's not quite clear what you want or what's required.

You may use stopwatch class to measure time elapsed: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.stopwatch(v=vs.110).aspx
You may measure in milliseconds or in ticks. 1 tick - 100 ns.

Also you may use DateTime.Ticks property to measure times:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.datetime.ticks(v=vs.110).aspx

LVL 1

XK8ERAuthor Commented: 2016-08-09

using DateTime is not a good suggestion as it has a resolution of about 15ms and also stopwatch is not good unless you use high resolution stopwatch.

the questions here is more of a concern than anything else, so i'm just worried if there are any casualties by using this code in a production environment or if it is a safe call.

DateTime - correct : )

I can't really see any problems with using Windows API.

On another hand, my understanding is that if a system supports high performance counters the .net stopwatch should be high resolution stopwatch. Have a look: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn553408(v=vs.85).aspx

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1ms timer calling functions

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