Checking for a non typing interval - c#

This question is a bit obscure, however I cannot find an answer for it anywhere. I am writing a program in C# (Visual Studio Pro 2013) and I need to perform an action after the user has stopped typing for 2 seconds (setting the interval at 2000). I would need a standard timer for this however I need to detect when the user has stopped typing for 2 seconds. How would I go about doing this?

Here's the complete code:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
System.Timers.Timer timer;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
// Initialize the timer.
timer = new System.Timers.Timer();
timer.Interval = 2000; // = 2 seconds; 1 second = 1000 miliseconds
timer.Elapsed += OnElapsed;
}
// Handles the TextBox.KeyUp event.
// The event handler was added in the designer via the Properties > Events > KeyUp
private void textBox1_KeyUp(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs e)
{
// Reset the timer on each KeyUp.
timer.Stop();
timer.Start();
}
private void OnElapsed(object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
// When time's up...
// - stop the timer first...
timer.Stop();
// - do something more...
MessageBox.Show("Time out!");
}
}

king.code's answer would be correct if you just reset the timer in the first line of textBox1_KeyUp event and initialize the timer in constructor or main method depending on usage.
System.Timers.Timer timer;
private void textBox1_KeyUp(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs e)
{
timer.Stop();
timer.Start();
timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(OnTimedEvent);
}
private static void OnTimedEvent(object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
// Do something
}
I would recommend you go for class that inherits text box and pass timer into it if you are going to use it at multiple places

Try this:
System.Timers.Timer timer = new System.Timers.Timer(2000);;
timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(OnTimedEvent);
timer.Enabled = false;
private void textBox1_KeyUp(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs e)
{
timer.Enabled = false;
timer.Enabled = true;
}
private static void OnTimedEvent(object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
// Do something
timer.Enabled = false;
}

That is easy just create a timer that sets to 2000 Ms and handle
It by the text change interveral .
Ex:
Set an integer that count from 0 to 2000 then increase it by the
Timer if user starts typing then reset the number else keep
Counting till reach 2000 an ping do the rusty homeboy helped;)

I have just found a valid answer that is simple and compact. I will explain it first and then show a code example. You need to start the timer disabled, and then you need to enable it as soon as the the user presses a key. Then, while still in the method for the user pressing the button you would need to reset the timer interval back to 2000. Whenever the timer expires, you do the action that needs to happen when the keyboard has been inactive for 2 seconds. Code example:
private void textBox_KeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
{
this.timer.Enabled = true;
this.timer.Interval = 2000;
}
Now the method for the timer_Tick:
private void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Do something when the keyboard has been inactive in 2 seconds
}

Related

Why does my timer not stop when checkbox is unchecked?

Here's my code
private void checkBox1_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.Timers.Timer myTimer = new System.Timers.Timer();
myTimer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(DisplayTimeEvent);
myTimer.Interval = Convert.ToInt32(textBox5.Text);
if (checkBox1.Checked)
{
myTimer.Start();
}
else
{
myTimer.Stop();
}
}
It should stop repeating the function when unchecked, but it doesn't. What's wrong with it?
I recommend that you stop using System.Timers.Timer and start using a System.Windows.Forms.Timer component.
Begin by removing your myTimer-related code (the entire body of checkBox1_CheckedChanged will need to be replaced with code from below.)
Add a Timer component to your form using the designer and name it myTimer. This will add a System.Windows.Forms.Timer field to your form called myTimer.
Using the designer, set the Tick event handler of myTimer to DisplayTimeEvent. (Or add a new handler and replace its code with the code of your DisplayTimeEvent function.)
Then change your checkBox1_CheckedChange function to look like this:
private void checkBox1_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (int.TryParse(textBox5.Text, out int interval)) {
this.myTimer.Interval = interval;
}
this.myTimer.Enabled = checkBox1.Checked;
this.textBox5.Enabled = !checkBox1.Checked;
}
I also recommend adding the following handler to textBox5 to perform the bare minimum validation so you can't crash your app by entering an interval of 0 or the empty string, or some text that is not an integer.
private void textBox5_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.checkBox1.Enabled = (int.TryParse(textBox5.Text, out int interval) && interval > 0);
}
The System.Windows.Forms.Timer's Tick handler will be called in the UI thread, meaning it will be safe to do things like update labels of your form in that handler. In contrast to that, the System.Timers.Timer will be called on a worker thread and will require that you take on some some thread-management responsibilities you likely don't want to incur, such as invoking your UI updates back to the main UI thread. See Why there are 5 Versions of Timer Classes in .NET? for more info.
Everytime checkbox1 is changed, new Timer is created. When checkbox is ticked, created timer is active and will invoke DisplayTimeEvent forever. When checkbox is unticked, you stop another Timer, which was just created.
You need to create Timer only once (probably when form is created), or when checkbox1 is changed first time:
private System.Timers.Timer myTimer;
private void checkBox1_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (myTimer == null) {
myTimer = new System.Timers.Timer();
myTimer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(DisplayTimeEvent);
myTimer.Interval = Convert.ToInt32(textBox5.Text);
}
if (checkBox1.Checked)
{
myTimer.Start();
}
else
{
myTimer.Stop();
}
}

Visual Studio C# using timer to hold down the program for 1 hour

I am a new user and i wish to add a timer to hold down the program for an hour and then continues.
This is the procedure:
Issue a command through serialport e.g. high
Holds for an hour
Issue again the same command 'high'
Holds for an hour
It repeats until a button is pressed.
How should i implement the timer? Because i tried searching online and found some examples.
I included this in Form1.cs:
static System.Timers.Timer Timer1;
void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Timer1 = new System.Timers.Timer(60*60*1000);
Timer1.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(TimedEvent);
Timer1.Enabled = true;
}
private void TimedEvent(Object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
serialPort1.Write("high");
}
Even though this code helps to repeat the high every hour but it only does the TimedEvent after 60 minutes. I need to write into the serialport first then execute the timer. How do i amend the codes to achieve the result i want?
Edited:
I realised that this code does not work as in the timer did not hold for an hour. Instead place it in form1_load to work.
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Timer1 = new System.Timers.Timer(10*1000);
Timer1.Elapsed += TimedEvent;
}
Tried this (below) but the timer didn't work
static System.Windows.Forms.Timer timer4 = new System.Windows.Forms.Timer();
void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Writetoserialport();
timer4.Interval = 10000; // testing on 10second interval
timer4.Enabled = true;
}
When i remove Writetoserialport() , the program runs forever.
Call TimedEvent directly for the first run:
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Timer1 = new System.Timers.Timer(10*1000);
Timer1.Elapsed += TimedEvent;
TimedEvent();
}
But for something that happens as rare as hourly, a Windows Service might be a better option.
This will work but will probably crash when you close the program sometimes because System.Timers.Timer triggers the TimedEvent on a ThreadPool thread. What will probably happen sometimes is when your program is closed, the SerialPort object will be disposed, but since the Timer is still executing on on another thread it will trigger the TimedEvent and try and write to the serialPort but it will crash the program because it will have been disposed.
You should look at System.Windows.Forms.Timer which is meant for using with GUI threads like this.
// INSTEAD, TRY THIS.
// It's really late here forgot to change some code after copy pasting from
above, should be good now.
static System.Windows.Forms.Timer timer1;
void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Timer(60*60*1000);
timer1.Tick += Timer1_Tick;
timer1.Enabled = true;
WriteToSerialPort(); // Call method directly for writing to port.
}
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
WriteToSerialPort();
}
private void WriteToSerialPort()
{
serialPort1.Write("high"); // write to port
}
Here is another example that allows you to not have a dedicated method for writing to the serial port. I would want the dedicated method so the serial port could be written to outside of the timer tick event without having to write the serial port code more than once. The code below needs to be in try...catch blocks. Note: System.Windows.Forms.Timer here.
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.IO.Ports;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace SerialPortSample
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private Timer timer1 = new Timer { Interval = 1000, Enabled = false }; // initialize timer, with a one second interval and disabled
private Button startTimerButton = new Button { Name = "startTimerButton",Text = #"Toggle Timer", Size = new Size(130, 33), Location = new Point(0, 0) };
// This is a place holder for the SerialPort control you probably have on your Form.
//Remove this instance of serialPort1 and use the serialPort1 control from your form.
private SerialPort serialPort1 = new SerialPort();
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
// add button to Form
this.Controls.Add(startTimerButton); // add button to form1
startTimerButton.Click += StartTimerButton_Click;
timer1.Tick += Timer1_Tick; // attach timer tick event
}
private void StartTimerButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer1.Enabled = !timer1.Enabled; // toggle timer.endabled, if false the Tick event will not be raised
timer1.Interval = 1000; // set timer interval to 1000 so the next time it is enabled it triggers immediately.
}
private void Timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer1.Interval = 60 * 60 * 1000; // set timer interval to 1 hour so it will not trigger for an hour
if (!serialPort1.IsOpen)
serialPort1.Open(); // open serial port if not open
serialPort1.Write("high"); // write to the serial port
serialPort1.Close(); // close serial port
}
}
}

Timer interval not working as expected

private void btnProveri_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
lblRezultat.Text = DateTime.Now.ToString();
timer1.Interval = 1800;
timer1.Start();
MessageBox.Show(DateTime.Now.ToString());
}
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer1.Enabled = true;
timer1.Interval = 1800;
}
I am a newbie trying to learn timers and this is my code above. I want to make a Timer which last 1,8 seconds. Then I call it inside the button when it's clicked and the first time the label is set to specific date and then i set interval to the timer and start it, but the messagebox outputs the same time (no delay at all).
That's because you're displaying the message box from within the same code that creates the timer. Effectively:
buttonClick:
Populate some text field.
Start timer so that it calls timerTick in 1.8 seconds
Display message box
timerTick:
Restart timer so it calls this function in 1.8 seconds.
As you can see, the message box is displayed at the time you press the button, not when the timer fires. When the timer fires, all you do is set it to fire again in another 1.8 seconds, but you don't actually do anything else at that point.
If you want it to display after the timer fires, it will have to be done in the timer function timer1_Tick. But you may want to be careful with that, it's possible you may end up with a rather large number of dialog boxes.
It looks like you want to do something like this:
private void btnProveri_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
lblRezultat.Text = DateTime.Now.ToString();
var timer = new System.Timers.Timer(1800);
timer.Start();
timer.Elapsed += timer1_Tick;
}
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show(DateTime.Now.ToString());
}
Here is working console example:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("App started");
var timer = new System.Timers.Timer(1800);
timer.Start();
timer.Elapsed += timerHandler;
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static void timerHandler(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
Messenger(DateTime.UtcNow.ToString());
}
private static void Messenger(string time)
{
Console.WriteLine(time);
}
}

delaying a timer stop in c# visual studios form application

in visual studios c# windows form application, I have a timer which want it to stop after a movement but not straight away can you put in a 5 second delay in timer.stop(); if possible if not something similar.
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
pictureBox1.Top -= 1;
timer1.Stop();
}
You could use a counter to specify when to stop the timer: Initialize the counter with, say, 100, if your timer delay is 50ms and you want a "delay" of 5s. Then use
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
pictureBox1.Top -= 1;
counter--;
if (counter==0)
timer1.Stop();
}
You can use another timer-class: System.Timers.Timer
Initialize that one on 5 seconds, handle the Elapsed event, in wich you stop your first timer.
Be sure to make it thread safe!
Thread-Safe Calls to a Windows Forms Control
I did it like this, i dont think using a timer is the best option here but to satisfy your needs.
Thread runner;
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer1.Start();
timer1.Interval = 1000;
textBox1.Text = "Amazing"; // initial process
}
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (runner != null && runner.IsAlive)
return;
runner = new Thread(new ThreadStart(() =>
{
// run your process here
Thread.Sleep(5000);
StopRunner();
}));
runner.Start();
}
private void StopRunner()
{
timer1.Stop();
// post process here
}
What it does is it processes your actual request then it'll exit the timer after. I checked if the thread is alive so it wont reprocess it.

Making a control to be visible only for a particular amount of time in c#

I am developing an application where i need the following requirement:
Suppose i have a button and a label (initially visibility set to false) in my form, and user clicks on the button, then the label should be displayed with some text that i assign to the label in the button click. But this label should be displayed only for some time, say some 3 secs and then it should automatically go invisible. For this if i gave:
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
label1.Visible=true;
label1.Text= "Magic";
Thread.Sleep(3000);
label1.Visible=false;
}
This code does not help the purpose. What is the approach to do it?
Try replacing the last two lines of your method with this:
System.Windows.Forms.Timer timer = new System.Windows.Forms.Timer();
timer.Interval = 3000;
timer.Tick += (source, e) => {label1.Visible = false; timer.Stop();};
timer.Start();
Using Thread.Sleep() is never a good idea in WinForms; use timers instead.
Create a timer with 3s as Interval, start it, and set Visible to false in your timer Tick event. Also don't forget to stop the timer.
Never call Thread.Sleep in your UI thread: the application will be blocked as the UI thread won't accept messages (user click...) while sleeping.
// create a global _timer object
static Timer _timer; // From System.Timers
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = "Magic";
// Thread.Sleep(3000); // don't do Thread.Sleep()!
label1.Visible = false;
Start();
}
static void Start()
{
label1.Visible = true;
_timer = new Timer(3000); // Set up the timer for 3 seconds
_timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(_timer_Elapsed);
_timer.Enabled = true; // Enable it
}
static void _timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
label1.Visible = false;
_timer.Stop();
}
Use Timer, perhaps Windows.Forms.Timer. You may have to play with enabling and disabling it when needed and not needed. Your current way does not help, coz your making the main UI thread to sleep. No use.

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