Is the Sleep operation no longer used in VBscript?

Question

The \"Sleep\" command as stated in many places over the internet (including here on this forum) DOES NOT WORK. Is it now an obsolete command?

I am writing the VBScri

Answer 1

Another option would be to (ab)use ping (if you want to avoid an additional script):

Sub Sleep(seconds)
  CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run "%COMSPEC% /c ping 127.0.0.1 -n " _
    & seconds+1, 0, True
End Sub

ping sends echo requests in (roughly) 1 second intervals, so you can get an n-second delay by sending n+1 echo requests.

Answer 2

Daniel's answer is absolutely correct about context being the key here. Although you don't have the WScript method available, you do have the full browser DOM, including the window.setTimeout method. With VBScript, the semantics of passing code to setTimeout are a little bit different than JavaScript, but it's still possible:

Sub button1_onclick()
    window.setTimeout GetRef("Delayed"), 1000
End Sub

Sub Delayed()
    div1.innerHTML = textbox1.value
End Sub

Answer 3

When run from a browser, VBScript code does not have a Wscript object. This is only for stand-alone VBS. As such, Wscript.Sleep isn't obsolete, it just doesn't work in a browser without a work around.

This thread suggests a potential work around. The rest of this post comes from the entry by mayayana on the linked page:

If your security can allow WScript.Shell to run you can do it this way -

Script sub in webpage:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript">
Sub Sleep(NumberSeconds)
Dim SH, Ret
Set SH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Ret = SH.Run("sleeper.vbs " & NumberSeconds, , True)
End Sub
</SCRIPT>

In the same folder as the webpage, put a file named sleeper.vbs and put this code into it:

Dim Arg
on error resume next
Arg = WScript.Arguments(0) * 1000
WScript.sleep Arg

You can then call something like:

Sleep 5 '-- pauses 5 seconds.