Suppose you have an application to display the stock index. Rather than relying on the “refresh” button, you might want to refresh itself in a specific time interval. “System.Threading.Timer” can be used for this scenario.

1. Timer Class

The “System.Threading.Timer” class has the following constructors:

public sealed class Timer : IDisposable
{
  public Timer(TimerCallback callback);
  public Timer(TimerCallback callback, Object state, int dueTime, int period);
  public Timer(TimerCallback callback, Object state, long dueTime, long period);
  public Timer(TimerCallback callback, Object state, TimeSpan dueTime, TimeSpan period);
}

• state : An object containing information to be used by the callback method, or null.
• dueTime : the delay time to start the timer, in milliseconds. Specify zero (0) to start the timer immediately
• period : the interval time, in milliseconds.

You need to specify “Timeout.Infinite” to disable duetime or period.

2. TimerCallback Delegate

You need to provide a method to run when a timer is enabled.

public delegate void TimerCallback(Object state);

3. One-Time Timer

You can create a one-time timer by setting the “period” parameter to “Timeout.Infinite“.

• dueTime : delay time
• period : Timeout.Infinite

public class RangeParameter
{
  public int Start { get; set; }
  public int End { get; set; }
}

public static class TimerTest
{
  public static void TestOneTimeTimer()
  {
    RangeParameter range = new RangeParameter { Start = 10, End = 50 };

    Timer oneTimeTimer = new Timer(state =>
      {
        RangeParameter data = state as RangeParameter;
        for (int i = data.Start; i < data.End; i++)
        {
          Console.Write(i + " ");
          Thread.Sleep(1);
        } 
      },
      range,
      1000, // after 1 second
      Timeout.Infinite // no interval
    );

    Console.WriteLine("Timer has not been triggered");
    Thread.Sleep(2000);
    Console.WriteLine("Timer has been triggered");
  }
}

4. Periodic Timer

Now let’s create a timer that is triggered periodically.

• dueTime : 0
• period : time in milliseconds

public static void Test2()
{
  RangeParameter range = new RangeParameter { Start = 1, End = 5 };
  using (Timer oneTimeTimer = new Timer(state =>
    {
      RangeParameter data = state as RangeParameter;
      for (int i = data.Start; i < data.End; i++)
      {
        Console.Write(i + " ");
        Thread.Sleep(1);
      }
    },
    range,
    0,
    1000 // every 1 second
    )
  )
  {

    Console.WriteLine("Timer has not been triggered");
    Thread.Sleep(5000);
    Console.WriteLine("Timer has been triggered many times");
  }

  Thread.Sleep(5000);
  Console.WriteLine("Timer has stopped");
}