Sleep function in Windows, using C

Question

I need to sleep my program in Windows. What header file has the sleep function?

Answer 1

Include the following function at the start of your code, whenever you want to busy wait. This is distinct from sleep, because the process will be utilizing 100% cpu while this function is running.

void sleep(unsigned int mseconds)
{
    clock_t goal = mseconds + clock();
    while (goal > clock())
        ;
}

Note that the name sleep for this function is misleading, since the CPU will not be sleeping at all.

Answer 2

MSDN: Header: Winbase.h (include Windows.h)

Answer 3

SleepEx function (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms686307.aspx) is the best choise if your program directly or indirectly creates windows (for example use some COM objects). In the simples cases you can also use Sleep.

Answer 4

Use:

#include <windows.h>

Sleep(sometime_in_millisecs); // Note uppercase S

And here's a small example that compiles with MinGW and does what it says on the tin:

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf( "starting to sleep...\n" );
    Sleep(3000); // Sleep three seconds
    printf("sleep ended\n");
}