How to set timer in android?

Question

Can someone give a simple example of updating a textfield every second or so?

I want to make a flying ball and need to calculate/update the ball coordinates every se

Answer 1

For those who can't rely on Chronometer, I made a utility class out of one of the suggestions:

public class TimerTextHelper implements Runnable {
   private final Handler handler = new Handler();
   private final TextView textView;
   private volatile long startTime;
   private volatile long elapsedTime;

   public TimerTextHelper(TextView textView) {
       this.textView = textView;
   }

   @Override
   public void run() {
       long millis = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime;
       int seconds = (int) (millis / 1000);
       int minutes = seconds / 60;
       seconds = seconds % 60;

       textView.setText(String.format("%d:%02d", minutes, seconds));

       if (elapsedTime == -1) {
           handler.postDelayed(this, 500);
       }
   }

   public void start() {
       this.startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
       this.elapsedTime = -1;
       handler.post(this);
   }

   public void stop() {
       this.elapsedTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime;
       handler.removeCallbacks(this);
   }

   public long getElapsedTime() {
       return elapsedTime;
   }
 }

to use..just do:

 TimerTextHelper timerTextHelper = new TimerTextHelper(textView);
 timerTextHelper.start();

.....

 timerTextHelper.stop();
 long elapsedTime = timerTextHelper.getElapsedTime();