Develop Reference

How to run a thread until a condition becomes true in c#

I am writing a program to send SMS every 5 minutes. I want to stop this when the system time is 6 PM. How can I do that? This is my current code.
I want to modify this according to my above requirement.
while (true)
{
sms.SendSMS();
Thread.Sleep(30000);
}}).Start();
}

Generally never use Sleep is bad idea , use timer instead:
System.Timers.Timer SendSMS = new System.Timers.Timer();
SendSMS.Interval = 300000; ///300000ms=5min
SendSMS.Elapsed += new System.Timers.ElapsedEventHandler(SendSMS_Elapsed);
SendSMS.Enabled=true;
void SendSMS_Elapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
sms.SendSMS();
}
Add a second timer to check the time and stop when is 6pm:
System.Timers.Timer StopSendSMS = new System.Timers.Timer();
StopSendSMS.Interval = 100;
StopSendSMS.Elapsed += new System.Timers.ElapsedEventHandler( StopSendSMS_Elapsed);
StopSendSMS.Enabled=true;
void StopSendSMS_Elapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
if (int(DateTime.Now.Hour)==18))
{
SendSMS.Enabled=false;
StopSendSMS.Enabled=false; ///no need to check anymore
}
}

You can use the below condition to check system TIME.
`if(DateTime.Now.Hour.ToString("HH") == "18") //Hour is in 24hour format`

How to use a timer to wait?

I am trying to delay events in my method by using a timer, however i do not necessarily understand how to use a timer to wait.
I set up my timer to be 2 seconds, but when i run this code the last call runs without a 2 second delay.
Timer timer = new Timer();
timer.Tick += new EventHandler(timer_Tick); // Everytime timer ticks, timer_Tick will be called
timer.Interval = (1000) * (2); // Timer will tick evert second
timer.Enabled = true; // Enable the timer
void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer.Stop();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = "first";
timer.Start();
label1.Text = "second";
}
So when i click my button, it immediately shows label1 as "second", as opposed to changing to "first", waiting 2 seconds, then changing to "second". I have read lots of threads here about using timers instead of thread.sleep, but i cannot seem to find/figure out how to actually implement that.

If you're using C# 5.0 await makes this much easier:
private async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = "first";
await Task.Delay(2000);
label1.Text = "second";
}

timer.Start() just starts the timer but immediately returns while the timer is running in the background. So between setting the label text to first and to second there is nearly no pause. What you want to do is wait for the timer to tick and only then update the label again:
void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer.Stop();
label1.Text = "second";
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = "first";
timer.Start();
}
Btw. you should not set timer.Enabled to true, you are already starting the timer using timer.Start().
As mentioned in the comments, you could put the timer creation into a method, like this (note: this is untested):
public void Delayed(int delay, Action action)
{
Timer timer = new Timer();
timer.Interval = delay;
timer.Tick += (s, e) => {
action();
timer.Stop();
};
timer.Start();
}
And then you could just use it like this:
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = "first";
Delayed(2000, () => label1.Text = "second");
}
Tergiver’s follow-up
Does using Delayed contain a memory leak (reference leak)?
Subscribing to an event always creates a two-way reference.
In this case timer.Tick gets a reference to an anonymous function (lambda). That function lifts a local variable timer, though it's a reference, not a value, and contains a reference to the passed in Action delegate. That delegate is going to contain a reference to label1, an instance member of the Form. So is there a circular reference from the Timer to the Form?
I don't know the answer, I'm finding it a bit difficult to reason about. Because I don't know, I would remove the use of the lambda in Delayed, making it a proper method and having it, in addition to stopping the timer (which is the sender parameter of the method), also remove the event.
Usually lambdas do not cause problems for the garbage collection. In this case, the timer instance only exists locally and the reference in the lambda does not prevent the garbage collection to collect the instances (see also this question).
I actually tested this again using the .NET Memory Profiler. The timer objects were collected just fine, and no leaking happened. The profiler did give me a warning that there are instances that “[…] have been garbage collected without being properly disposed” though. Removing the event handler in itself (by keeping a reference to it) did not fix that though. Changing the captured timer reference to (Timer)s did not change that either.
What did help—obviously—was to call a timer.Dispose() in the event handler after stopping the timer, but I’d argue if that is actually necessary. I don’t think the profiler warning/note is that critical.

If all you're trying to do is change the text when the timer ticks, would you not be better off putting...
label1.Text = "second";
...In the timer tick, either before or after you change the timer to enabled = false;
Like so;
void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer.Stop();
label1.Text = "second";
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = "first";
timer.Start();
}

private bool Delay(int millisecond)
{
Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
sw.Start();
bool flag = false;
while (!flag)
{
if (sw.ElapsedMilliseconds > millisecond)
{
flag = true;
}
}
sw.Stop();
return true;
}
bool del = Delay(1000);

Repeating a code execution

I am trying to repeat a code execution after predefined time passes and i don't want to mess up things by using threads. Is the below code a good practice?
Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch(); // sw constructor
EXIT:
// Here I have my code
sw.Start();
while (sw.ElapsedMilliseconds < 100000)
{
// do nothing, just wait
}
System.Media.SystemSounds.Beep.Play(); // for test
sw.Stop();
goto EXIT;

Use a timer instead of labels and StopWatch. You are doing busy waiting, tying up the CPU in that tight loop.
You start a timer, giving it an interval to fire on (100000 milliseconds), then run your code in the event handler for the Tick event.
See Comparing the Timer Classes in the .NET Framework Class Library in MSDN magazine.

You could use a timer what Oded suggested:
public partial class TestTimerClass : Form
{
Timer timer1 = new Timer(); // Make the timer available for this class.
public TestTimerClass()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer1.Tick += timer1_Tick; // Assign the tick event
timer1.Interval = 1000; // Set the interval of the timer in ms (1000 ms = 1 sec)
timer1.Start(); // Start the timer
}
void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.Media.SystemSounds.Beep.Play();
timer1.Stop(); // Stop the timer (remove this if you want to loop the timer)
}
}
EDIT: Just want to show you how to make an easy timer if you don't know how to :)

Raising a function by timer

I want to raise a function periodically .
When I finish one function cycle to wait some period of time and only them to start the second run.
I thought to make it like :
timer = new System.Timers.Timer();
timer.Interval = 1000;
timer.Enabled = true;
timer.Start();
timer.Elapsed += TimerTick;
private void TimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//My functionality
}
But seems that TimerTick is raised every secound and not secound from my last TimerTick run .
How i can solve this one ?

You can use threads:
var thread = new Thread(o => {
while(true)
{
DoTick();
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
});

You can stop your timer before doing your processing and start it again after it's done:
private void TimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer.Stop();
//My functionality
timer.Start();
}
it's also a good idea to put your functionality in a try-catch and call Start() in the finally section. (if this suits you)

Try the following:
private void TimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// get the timer that raised this event (you can have multiple
// timers, or the timer obj is out of scope here, so use this):
Timer timer = (Timer) sender;
// disable (or use timer.Stop())
timer.Enabled = false;
// ...
// your code
// ...
// at end, re-enable
timer.Enabled = true;
}
you will find that the timer will now run 1000ms after your code finished. You can also use timer.Stop() and timer.Start().

you could always do something like this:
while (true)
{
// your functions
Thread.Sleep(1000)
}
you'd have to find a way to stop this through an external mechanism, but it should work.

You're right: the timer will run every second: it won't care what you're doing in the TimerTick.
What you can do is to stop the timer on entering the TimerTick methode.
private void TimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer.Stop();
//My functionality
timer.Start();
}

Try this:
DateTime lastDT = DateTime.MinValue;
private void TimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
if (now - last).TotalSeconds > what_you_want
{
//My functionality
}
last = now;
}
Using this, your form (main thread) is not locked and you/user can do what you please.

Try
private void TimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer.Stop();
// My Functionality
timer.Stop();
}
However, you may have an extra even fired. As per MSDN Docs:
The signal to raise the Elapsed event is always queued for execution on a ThreadPool thread, so the event-handling method might run on one thread at the same time that a call to the Stop method runs on another thread. This might result in the Elapsed event being raised after the Stop method is called. The code example in the next section shows one way to work around this race condition.
You might want to consider Thread.Sleep() instead

How to block a timer while processing the elapsed event?

I have a timer that needs to not process its elapsed event handler at the same time. But processing one Elapsed event may interfere with others. I implemented the below solution, but something feels wrong; it seems like either I should be using the timer differently or using another object within the threading space. The timer seemed to fit best because I do need to periodically check for a status, but sometimes checking will take longer than my interval. Is this the best way to approach this?
// member variable
private static readonly object timerLock = new object();
private bool found = false;
// elsewhere
timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5).TotalMilliseconds;
timer.Elapsed = Timer_OnElapsed;
timer.Start();
public void Timer_OnElapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
lock(timerLock)
{
if (!found)
{
found = LookForItWhichMightTakeALongTime();
}
}
}

You could set AutoReset to false, then explicitly reset the timer after you are done handling it. Of course, how you handle it really depends on how you expect the timer to operate. Doing it this way would allow your timer to drift away from the actual specified interval (as would stopping and restarting). Your mechanism would allow each interval to fire and be handled but it may result in a backlog of unhandled events that are handled now where near the expiration of the timer that cause the handler to be invoked.
timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5).TotalMilliseconds;
timer.Elapsed += Timer_OnElapsed;
timer.AutoReset = false;
timer.Start();
public void Timer_OnElapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
if (!found)
{
found = LookForItWhichMightTakeALongTime();
}
timer.Start();
}

I usually stop the timer while processing it, enter a try/finally block, and resume the timer when done.

If LookForItWhichMightTakeALongTime() is going to take a long time, I would suggest not using a System.Windows.Forms.Timer because doing so will lock up your UI thread and the user may kill your application thinking that it has frozen.
What you could use is a BackgroundWorker (along with a Timer if so desired).
public class MyForm : Form
{
private BackgroundWorker backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
public MyForm()
{
InitializeComponents();
backgroundWorker.DoWork += backgroundWorker_DoWork;
backgroundWorker.RunWorkerCompleted +=
backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted;
backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
}
private void backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
e.Result = LookForItWhichMightTakeALongTime();
}
private void backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender,
RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
found = e.Result as MyClass;
}
}
And you can call RunWorkerAsync() from anywhere you want to, even from a Timer if you want. And just make sure to check if the BackgroundWorker is running already since calling RunWorkerAsync() when it's running will throw an exception.
private void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!backgroundWorker.IsBusy)
backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
}

timer.enabled = false
or
timer.stop();
and
timer.enabled = true
or
timer.start();

I use the System.Threading.Timer like so
class Class1
{
static Timer timer = new Timer(DoSomething,null,TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1),TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1));
private static void DoSomething(object state)
{
timer = null; // stop timer
// do some long stuff here
timer = new Timer(DoSomething, null, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1), TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1));
}
}