How to set a timer in javascript

Question

I want to run the following code:

ajaxUpdate(10);

With a delay of 1 second between each iteration. How can I do this?

Answer 1

var i = window.setInterval( function(){ 
          ajaxUpdate(10); 
 }, 1000 ); 

This will call ajaxUpdate every second, until such a time it is stopped.

And if you wish to stop it later:

window.clearInterval( i ); 

If you wish to only run it once however,

var i = window.setTimeout( function(){ 
          ajaxUpdate(10); 
 }, 1000 ); 

Will do the trick, and if you want to stop it running before it gets around to running once

window.clearTimeout(i); 

The "window" prefix is not strictly nessecary, but its a good idea, because you never know when somebody else might like to create something else with the same name in visible scope that behaves differently.

For a complete reference on this, I always find MDC Very Helpful:

• MDC: window.setInterval
• MDC: window.clearInterval
• MDC: window.setTimeout
• MDC: window.clearTimeout

Also, you may wish to read this article on timers by John Resig,

• ejohn.org : How Javascript Timers work