How do I create a NSTimer on a background thread?

Question

I have a task that needs to be performed every 1 second. Currently I have an NSTimer firing repeatedly every 1 sec. How do I have the timer fire in a background thread (no

Answer 1

Swift only (although can probably be modified to use with Objective-C)

Check out DispatchTimer from https://github.com/arkdan/ARKExtensions, which "Executes a closure on specified dispatch queue, with specified time intervals, for specified number of times (optionally). "

let queue = DispatchQueue(label: "ArbitraryQueue")
let timer = DispatchTimer(timeInterval: 1, queue: queue) { timer in
    // body to execute until cancelled by timer.cancel()
}

Answer 2

If you want to go pure GCD and use a dispatch source, Apple has some sample code for this in their Concurrency Programming Guide:

dispatch_source_t CreateDispatchTimer(uint64_t interval, uint64_t leeway, dispatch_queue_t queue, dispatch_block_t block)
{
    dispatch_source_t timer = dispatch_source_create(DISPATCH_SOURCE_TYPE_TIMER, 0, 0, queue);
    if (timer)
    {
        dispatch_source_set_timer(timer, dispatch_walltime(NULL, 0), interval, leeway);
        dispatch_source_set_event_handler(timer, block);
        dispatch_resume(timer);
    }
    return timer;
}

Swift 3:

func createDispatchTimer(interval: DispatchTimeInterval,
                         leeway: DispatchTimeInterval,
                         queue: DispatchQueue,
                         block: @escaping ()->()) -> DispatchSourceTimer {
    let timer = DispatchSource.makeTimerSource(flags: DispatchSource.TimerFlags(rawValue: 0),
                                               queue: queue)
    timer.scheduleRepeating(deadline: DispatchTime.now(),
                            interval: interval,
                            leeway: leeway)

    // Use DispatchWorkItem for compatibility with iOS 9. Since iOS 10 you can use DispatchSourceHandler
    let workItem = DispatchWorkItem(block: block)
    timer.setEventHandler(handler: workItem)
    timer.resume()
    return timer
}

You could then set up your one-second timer event using code like the following:

dispatch_source_t newTimer = CreateDispatchTimer(1ull * NSEC_PER_SEC, (1ull * NSEC_PER_SEC) / 10, dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
    // Repeating task
});

making sure to store and release your timer when done, of course. The above gives you a 1/10th second leeway on the firing of these events, which you could tighten up if you desired.

Answer 3

This should work,

It repeats a method every 1 second in a background queue without using NSTimers :)

- (void)methodToRepeatEveryOneSecond
{
    // Do your thing here

    // Call this method again using GCD 
    dispatch_queue_t q_background = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_BACKGROUND, 0);
    double delayInSeconds = 1.0;
    dispatch_time_t popTime = dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, delayInSeconds * NSEC_PER_SEC);
    dispatch_after(popTime, q_background, ^(void){
        [self methodToRepeatEveryOneSecond];
    });
}

If you are in the main queue and you want to call above method you could do this so it changes to a background queue before is run :)

dispatch_queue_t q_background = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_BACKGROUND, 0);
dispatch_async(q_background, ^{
    [self methodToRepeatEveryOneSecond];
});

Hope it helps

Answer 4

class BgLoop:Operation{
    func main(){
        while (!isCancelled) {
            sample();
            Thread.sleep(forTimeInterval: 1);
        }
    }
}