jQuery infinite function execution

Question

We want to know if it is possible to have a function using jQuery to inspect a number of elements and, depending on the types assigned to them by one click, perform other fu

Answer 1

// define a function...
function ganttEach() {
  $("td.gantt").each(function() {
    // ...
  });
}

// ...repeat it once every second
window.setInterval(ganttEach, 1000);

You can't "let it run all the time" (like, in a while(true) loop) because JavaScript is single-threaded and blocking the thread means your other code will never run. setInterval() makes sure there are necessary "gaps" for other code to execute.

setInterval() returns an ID that you can store in a variable and feed to clearInterval() at some point to make it stop again.

---

If you want to make sure that every new iteration of your function starts only after the previous one has really finished, use setTimeout() instead:

// define a self-repeating function...
function ganttEach() {
  $("td.gantt").each(function() {
    // ...
  });
  window.setTimeout(ganttEach, 1000); // calls itself again in one second
}

// ...initiate self-repeating function
ganttEach();

You should probably include some way to stop the endless repetition here as well, like introducing a flag that's checked before the setTimeout() call.