How can I “sleep” a Dart program

Question

I like to simulate an asynchronous web service call in my Dart application for testing. To simulate the randomness of these mock calls responding (possibly out of order) I\

Answer 1

I found that there are several implementations in Dart to make the code delay execution:

new Future.delayed(const Duration(seconds: 1)); //recommend

new Timer(const Duration(seconds: 1), ()=>print("1 second later."));

sleep(const Duration(seconds: 1)); //import 'dart:io';

new Stream.periodic(const Duration(seconds: 1), (_) => print("1 second later.")).first.then((_)=>print("Also 1 second later."));
//new Stream.periodic(const Duration(seconds: 1)).first.then((_)=>print("Also 1 second later."));

Answer 2

This a useful mock that can take an optional parameter to mock an error:

  Future _mockService([dynamic error]) {
    return new Future.delayed(const Duration(seconds: 2), () {
      if (error != null) {
        throw error;
      }
    });
  }

You can use it like this:

  await _mockService(new Exception('network error'));

Answer 3

For Dart 2+ syntax , in a async function context:

import 'package:meta/meta.dart'; //for @required annotation

void main() async {
  void justWait({@required int numberOfSeconds}) async {
    await Future.delayed(Duration(seconds: numberOfSeconds));
  }

  await justWait(numberOfSeconds: 5);
} 

Answer 4

You can also use the Future.delayed factory to complete a future after a delay. Here is an example of two functions that return a string asynchronously after a delay:

import 'dart:async';

Future sleep1() {
  return new Future.delayed(const Duration(seconds: 1), () => "1");
}

Future sleep2() {
  return new Future.delayed(const Duration(seconds: 2), () => "2");
}

Answer 5

I also needed to wait for a service to complete during a unit test. I implemented this way:

void main()
{
    test('Send packages using isolate', () async {
        await SendingService().execute();
    });
    // Loop to the amount of time the service will take to complete
    for( int seconds = 0; seconds < 10; seconds++ ) {
        test('Waiting 1 second...', () {
            sleep(const Duration(seconds:1));
        } );
    }
}
...
class SendingService {
    Isolate _isolate;
    Future execute() async {
        ...
        final MyMessage msg = new MyMessage(...);
        ...
        Isolate.spawn(_send, msg)
            .then<Null>((Isolate isolate) => _isolate = isolate);
    }
    static void _send(MyMessage msg) {
        final IMyApi api = new IMyApi();
        api.send(msg.data)
            .then((ignored) {
                ...
            })
            .catchError((e) {
                ...
            } );
    }
}

Answer 6

It's not always what you want (sometimes you want Future.delayed), but if you really want to sleep in your Dart command-line app, you can use dart:io's sleep():

import 'dart:io';

main() {
  sleep(const Duration(seconds:1));
}