Wait some seconds without blocking UI execution

Question

I would like to wait some seconds between two instruction, but WITHOUT blocking the execution.

For example, Thread.Sleep(2000) it is not good, because it blocks execution.

The idea is that I call a method and then I wait X seconds (20 for example) listening for an event coming. At the end of the 20 seconds I should do some operation depending on what happened in the 20 seconds.

Answer 1

This is a good case for using another thread:

// Call some method
this.Method();

Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
    Thread.Sleep(20000);

    // Do things here.
    // NOTE: You may need to invoke this to your main thread depending on what you're doing
});

The above code expects .NET 4.0 or above, otherwise try:

ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(new WaitCallback(delegate
{
    Thread.Sleep(20000);

    // Do things here
}));

Answer 2

I think what you are after is Task.Delay. This doesn't block the thread like Sleep does and it means you can do this using a single thread using the async programming model.

async Task PutTaskDelay()
{
    await Task.Delay(5000);
} 

private async void btnTaskDelay_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    await PutTaskDelay();
    MessageBox.Show("I am back");
}

Answer 3

i really disadvise you against using Thread.Sleep(2000), because of a several reasons (a few are described here), but most of all because its not useful when it comes to debugging/testing.

I recommend to use a C# Timer instead of Thread.Sleep(). Timers let you perform methods frequently (if necessary) AND are much easiert to use in testing! There's a very nice example of how to use a timer right behind the hyperlink - just put your logic "what happens after 2 seconds" right into the Timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(OnTimedEvent); method.

Answer 4

If you do not want to block things and also not want to use multi threading, here is the solution for you: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.timers.timer(v=vs.110).aspx

The UI Thread is not blocked and the timer waits for 2 seconds before doing something.

Here is the code coming from the link above:

        // Create a timer with a two second interval.
    aTimer = new System.Timers.Timer(2000);
    // Hook up the Elapsed event for the timer. 
    aTimer.Elapsed += OnTimedEvent;
    aTimer.Enabled = true;

    Console.WriteLine("Press the Enter key to exit the program... ");
    Console.ReadLine();
    Console.WriteLine("Terminating the application...");

Answer 5

Look into System.Threading.Timer class. I think this is what you're looking for.

The code example on MSDN seems to show this class doing very similar to what you're trying to do (check status after certain time).

Answer 6

I use:

private void WaitNSeconds(int segundos)
{
    if (segundos < 1) return;
    DateTime _desired = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(segundos);
    while (DateTime.Now < _desired) {
         System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();
    }
}