How to pause a setTimeout call? [duplicate]

Answer 1

It wouldn't be too hard to add a PausableTimeout class:

(Might not be valid JS, but it shouldn't be too hard to get it working):

    function PausableTimeout(func, millisec) {
        this.func = func;
        this.stTime = new Date().valueOf();
        this.timeout = setTimeout(func, millisec);
        this.timeLeft = millisec;
    }
    function PausableTimer_pause() {
        clearTimeout(self.timeout);
        var timeRan = new Date().valueOf()-this.stTime;
        this.timeLeft -= timeRan;
    }
    function PausableTimer_unpause() {
        this.timeout = setTimeout(this.func, this.timeLeft);
        this.stTime = new Date().valueOf();
    }
    PausableTimer.prototype.pause = PausableTimer_pause;
    PausableTimer.prototype.unpause = PausableTimer_unpause;

    //Usage:
    myTimer = new PausableTimer(function(){alert("It works!");}, 2000);
    myTimer.pause();
    myTimer.unpause();

Of course, it'd be a great idea to add some error checking in there (don't want it to be possible to unpause the timeout multiple times and end up with hundreds of timeouts!), but I'll let that be your job :P

Answer 2

Use clearTimeout() on mouseover event and use setTimeout() again on mouseout event.

http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/met_win_cleartimeout.asp

Answer 3

Try this.

var myTimeOut;
$(someElement).mouseout( function () {
  myTimeOut = setTimeout("mytimeoutfunction()", 5000)
});

$(someElement).mouseover( function () {
  clearTimeout(myTimeOut);
});