I wanted to replace a counter based while loop with the timer based while loop in C#.
Example :
while(count < 100000)
{
//do something
}
to
while(timer < X seconds)
{
//do something
}
I have two types of timers in C# .NET for this System.Timers and Threading.Timers .
Which one will be better to use and how.I don't want to add extra time consumption or threading issues with the timer.
What about using the Stopwatch class.
using System.Diagnostics;
//...
Stopwatch timer = new Stopwatch();
timer.Start();
while(timer.Elapsed.TotalSeconds < Xseconds)
{
// do something
}
timer.Stop();
Use a construct like this:
Timer r = new System.Timers.Timer(timeout_in_ms);
r.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(timer_Elapsed);
r.Enabled = true;
running = true;
while (running) {
// do stuff
}
r.Enabled = false;
void timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
running = false;
}
Be careful though to do this on the UI thread, as it will block input.
You can use Stopwatch class instead of them, like;
Provides a set of methods and properties that you can use to accurately measure elapsed time.
Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
sw.Start();
while (sw.Elapsed < TimeSpan.FromSeconds(X seconds))
{
//do something
}
From TimeSpan.FromSecond
Returns a TimeSpan that represents a specified number of seconds, where the specification is accurate to the nearest millisecond.
You might as well use the DateTime.Now.Ticks counter:
long start = DateTime.Now.Ticks;
TimeSpan duration = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(1000);
do
{
//
}
while (DateTime.Now.Ticks - start < duration);
However, this seems to be something like busy waiting. That means that the loop will cause one core of your CPU to run at 100%. It will slow down other processes, speed up fans a.s.o. Although it depends on what you intend to do I would recommend to include Thread.Sleep(1) in the loop.
