C# Tip: Raise synchronous events using Timer (and not a While loop)

There may be times when you need to process a specific task on a timely basis, such as polling an endpoint to look for updates or refreshing a Refresh Token.

If you need infinite processing, you can pick two roads: the obvious one or the better one.

For instance, you can use an infinite loop and put a Sleep command to delay the execution of the next task:

while(true)
{
    Thread.Sleep(2000);
    Console.WriteLine("Hello, Davide!");
}

There’s nothing wrong with it - but we can do better.

Introducing System.Timers.Timer

The System.Timers namespace exposes a cool object that you can use to achieve that result: Timer.

You then define the timer, choose which event(s) must be processed, and then run it:

void Main()
{
    System.Timers.Timer timer = new System.Timers.Timer(2000);
    timer.Elapsed += AlertMe;
    timer.Elapsed += AlertMe2;

    timer.Start();
}

void AlertMe(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Ciao Davide!");
}

void AlertMe2(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Hello Davide!");
}

The constructor accepts in input an interval (a double value that represents the milliseconds for the interval), whose default value is 100.

This class implements IDisposable: if you’re using it as a dependency of another component that must be Disposed, don’t forget to call Dispose on that Timer.

Note: use this only for synchronous tasks: there are other kinds of Timers that you can use for asynchronous operations, such as PeriodicTimer, which also can be stopped by canceling a CancellationToken.

This article first appeared on Code4IT 🐧

Happy coding!

🐧