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

ok since this isn't cleared up yet there are 3 simple ways to handle this. Below is an example showing all 3 and at the bottom is an example showing just the method I believe is preferable. Also remember to clean up your tasks in onPause, saving state if necessary.

import java.util.Timer;
import java.util.TimerTask;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.os.Message;
import android.os.Handler.Callback;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class main extends Activity {
    TextView text, text2, text3;
    long starttime = 0;
    //this  posts a message to the main thread from our timertask
    //and updates the textfield
   final Handler h = new Handler(new Callback() {

        @Override
        public boolean handleMessage(Message msg) {
           long millis = System.currentTimeMillis() - starttime;
           int seconds = (int) (millis / 1000);
           int minutes = seconds / 60;
           seconds     = seconds % 60;

           text.setText(String.format("%d:%02d", minutes, seconds));
            return false;
        }
    });
   //runs without timer be reposting self
   Handler h2 = new Handler();
   Runnable run = new Runnable() {

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

           text3.setText(String.format("%d:%02d", minutes, seconds));

           h2.postDelayed(this, 500);
        }
    };

   //tells handler to send a message
   class firstTask extends TimerTask {

        @Override
        public void run() {
            h.sendEmptyMessage(0);
        }
   };

   //tells activity to run on ui thread
   class secondTask extends TimerTask {

        @Override
        public void run() {
            main.this.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {

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

                   text2.setText(String.format("%d:%02d", minutes, seconds));
                }
            });
        }
   };


   Timer timer = new Timer();
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        text = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.text);
        text2 = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.text2);
        text3 = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.text3);

        Button b = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button);
        b.setText("start");
        b.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                Button b = (Button)v;
                if(b.getText().equals("stop")){
                    timer.cancel();
                    timer.purge();
                    h2.removeCallbacks(run);
                    b.setText("start");
                }else{
                    starttime = System.currentTimeMillis();
                    timer = new Timer();
                    timer.schedule(new firstTask(), 0,500);
                    timer.schedule(new secondTask(),  0,500);
                    h2.postDelayed(run, 0);
                    b.setText("stop");
                }
            }
        });
    }

    @Override
    public void onPause() {
        super.onPause();
        timer.cancel();
        timer.purge();
        h2.removeCallbacks(run);
        Button b = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button);
        b.setText("start");
    }
}

the main thing to remember is that the UI can only be modified from the main ui thread so use a handler or activity.runOnUIThread(Runnable r);

Here is what I consider to be the preferred method.

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

public class TestActivity extends Activity {

    TextView timerTextView;
    long startTime = 0;

    //runs without a timer by reposting this handler at the end of the runnable
    Handler timerHandler = new Handler();
    Runnable timerRunnable = new Runnable() {

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

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

            timerHandler.postDelayed(this, 500);
        }
    };

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.test_activity);

        timerTextView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.timerTextView);

        Button b = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button);
        b.setText("start");
        b.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                Button b = (Button) v;
                if (b.getText().equals("stop")) {
                    timerHandler.removeCallbacks(timerRunnable);
                    b.setText("start");
                } else {
                    startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
                    timerHandler.postDelayed(timerRunnable, 0);
                    b.setText("stop");
                }
            }
        });
    }

  @Override
    public void onPause() {
        super.onPause();
        timerHandler.removeCallbacks(timerRunnable);
        Button b = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button);
        b.setText("start");
    }

}

Answer 2

I think you can do it in Rx way like:

 timerSubscribe = Observable.interval(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
            .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
            .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
            .subscribe(new Action1<Long>() {
                @Override
                public void call(Long aLong) {
                      //TODO do your stuff
                }
            });

And cancel this like:

timerSubscribe.unsubscribe();

Rx Timer http://reactivex.io/documentation/operators/timer.html

Answer 3

Because this question is still attracting a lot of users from google search(about Android timer) I would like to insert my two coins.

First of all, the Timer class will be deprecated in Java 9 (read the accepted answer).

The official suggested way is to use ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor which is more effective and features-rich that can additionally schedule commands to run after a given delay, or to execute periodically. Plus,it gives additional flexibility and capabilities of ThreadPoolExecutor.

Here is an example of using plain functionalities.

1. Create executor service:

   final ScheduledExecutorService SCHEDULER = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(1);
   

2. Just schedule you runnable:

   final Future<?> future = SCHEDULER.schedule(Runnable task, long delay,TimeUnit unit);
   

3. You can now use future to cancel the task or check if it is done for example:

   future.isDone();
   

Hope you will find this useful for creating a tasks in Android.

Complete example:

ScheduledExecutorService scheduler = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(1);
Future<?> sampleFutureTimer = scheduler.schedule(new Runnable(), 120, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
if (sampleFutureTimer.isDone()){
    // Do something which will save world.
}