NetBeans / Java / New hint: Thread.sleep called in loop

Question

In NetBeans, there\'s a new hint that says: Thread.sleep called in loop.

Question 1: How/when can it be a problem to sleep in a loo

Answer 1

As others have said it depends on the usage. A legitimate use would be a program that is designed to do something every 10 seconds (but is not so critical that exact timing is needed). We have lots of these "utility apps" that import data and other such tasks every few minutes. This is an easy way to perform these tasks and we typically will set the sleep interval to be very low and use a counter so that the program stays responsive and can exit easily.

int count = 0;
while (true) {

    try {
        // Wait for 1 second.
        Thread.sleep(1000);
    }
    catch (InterruptedException ex) {}

    // Check to see if the program should exit due to other conditions.
    if (shouldExit())
        break;

    // Is 10 seconds up yet? If not, just loop back around.
    count++;
    if (count < 10) continue;

    // 10 seconds is up. Reset the counter and do something important.
    count = 0;
    this.doSomething();
}