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

It is simple! You create new timer.

Timer timer = new Timer();

Then you extend the timer task

class UpdateBallTask extends TimerTask {
   Ball myBall;

   public void run() {
       //calculate the new position of myBall
   }
}

And then add the new task to the Timer with some update interval

final int FPS = 40;
TimerTask updateBall = new UpdateBallTask();
timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(updateBall, 0, 1000/FPS);

Disclaimer: This is not the ideal solution. This is solution using the Timer class (as asked by OP). In Android SDK, it is recommended to use the Handler class (there is example in the accepted answer).

Answer 2

You need to create a thread to handle the update loop and use it to update the textarea. The tricky part though is that only the main thread can actually modify the ui so the update loop thread needs to signal the main thread to do the update. This is done using a Handler.

Check out this link: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/dialogs.html# Click on the section titled "Example ProgressDialog with a second thread". It's an example of exactly what you need to do, except with a progress dialog instead of a textfield.

Answer 3

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();

Answer 4

If you also need to run your code on UI thread (and not on timer thread), take a look on the blog: http://steve.odyfamily.com/?p=12

public class myActivity extends Activity {
private Timer myTimer;

/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
    super.onCreate(icicle);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    myTimer = new Timer();
    myTimer.schedule(new TimerTask() {          
        @Override
        public void run() {
            TimerMethod();
        }

    }, 0, 1000);
}

private void TimerMethod()
{
    //This method is called directly by the timer
    //and runs in the same thread as the timer.

    //We call the method that will work with the UI
    //through the runOnUiThread method.
    this.runOnUiThread(Timer_Tick);
}


private Runnable Timer_Tick = new Runnable() {
    public void run() {

    //This method runs in the same thread as the UI.               

    //Do something to the UI thread here

    }
};
}

Answer 5

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Timer;
import java.util.TimerTask;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.CheckBox;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.app.Activity;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

 CheckBox optSingleShot;
 Button btnStart, btnCancel;
 TextView textCounter;

 Timer timer;
 MyTimerTask myTimerTask;

 @Override
 protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
  optSingleShot = (CheckBox)findViewById(R.id.singleshot);
  btnStart = (Button)findViewById(R.id.start);
  btnCancel = (Button)findViewById(R.id.cancel);
  textCounter = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.counter);

  btnStart.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener(){

   @Override
   public void onClick(View arg0) {

    if(timer != null){
     timer.cancel();
    }

    //re-schedule timer here
    //otherwise, IllegalStateException of
    //"TimerTask is scheduled already" 
    //will be thrown
    timer = new Timer();
    myTimerTask = new MyTimerTask();

    if(optSingleShot.isChecked()){
     //singleshot delay 1000 ms
     timer.schedule(myTimerTask, 1000);
    }else{
     //delay 1000ms, repeat in 5000ms
     timer.schedule(myTimerTask, 1000, 5000);
    }
   }});

  btnCancel.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener(){

   @Override
   public void onClick(View v) {
    if (timer!=null){
     timer.cancel();
     timer = null;
    }
   }
  });

 }

 class MyTimerTask extends TimerTask {

  @Override
  public void run() {
   Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
   SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = 
     new SimpleDateFormat("dd:MMMM:yyyy HH:mm:ss a");
   final String strDate = simpleDateFormat.format(calendar.getTime());

   runOnUiThread(new Runnable(){

    @Override
    public void run() {
     textCounter.setText(strDate);
    }});
  }

 }

}

.xml

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android:orientation="vertical"
tools:context=".MainActivity" >

<TextView
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
    android:autoLink="web"
    android:text="http://android-er.blogspot.com/"
    android:textStyle="bold" />
<CheckBox 
    android:id="@+id/singleshot"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Single Shot"/>

Answer 6

I'm surprised that there is no answer that would mention solution with RxJava2. It is really simple and provides an easy way to setup timer in Android.

First you need to setup Gradle dependency, if you didn't do so already:

implementation "io.reactivex.rxjava2:rxjava:2.x.y"

(replace x and y with current version number)

Since we have just a simple, NON-REPEATING TASK, we can use Completable object:

Completable.timer(2, TimeUnit.SECONDS, Schedulers.computation())
        .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
        .subscribe(() -> {
            // Timer finished, do something...
        });

For REPEATING TASK, you can use Observable in a similar way:

Observable.interval(2, TimeUnit.SECONDS, Schedulers.computation())
        .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
        .subscribe(tick -> {
            // called every 2 seconds, do something...
        }, throwable -> {
            // handle error
        });

Schedulers.computation() ensures that our timer is running on background thread and .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread()) means code we run after timer finishes will be done on main thread.

To avoid unwanted memory leaks, you should ensure to unsubscribe when Activity/Fragment is destroyed.