How to make a countdown timer in Java

Question

I'm a beginner (student) in programming and was assigned to create a game. The game I'm making is called boggle. In which the player have to find words in a random letter board within a given time, but I'm having trouble with creating the timer. This is what it my timer should do:

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• dynamic input for the time (set time)
• countdown from input time to 0
• when o => jump out of loop

All I need to know is how to make it countdown. I don't think I need a ActionListener because it starts ticking the moment the class is created.

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Any help, advice, links, push in the right direction will be accepted with open arms.

Answer 1

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.Timer;
import java.util.TimerTask;

public class Stopwatch {
static int interval;
static Timer timer;

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
    System.out.print("Input seconds => : ");
    String secs = sc.nextLine();
    int delay = 1000;
    int period = 1000;
    timer = new Timer();
    interval = Integer.parseInt(secs);
    System.out.println(secs);
    timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(new TimerTask() {

        public void run() {
            System.out.println(setInterval());

        }
    }, delay, period);
}

private static final int setInterval() {
    if (interval == 1)
        timer.cancel();
    return --interval;
}
}

Try this.

Answer 2

You'll see people using the Timer class to do this. Unfortunately, it isn't always accurate. Your best bet is to get the system time when the user enters input, calculate a target system time, and check if the system time has exceeded the target system time. If it has, then break out of the loop.

Answer 3

You can create a countdown timer using applet, below is the code,

   import java.applet.*;
   import java.awt.*;
   import java.awt.event.*;
   import javax.swing.*;
   import javax.swing.Timer; // not java.util.Timer
   import java.text.NumberFormat;
   import java.net.*;



/**
    * An applet that counts down from a specified time. When it reaches 00:00,
    * it optionally plays a sound and optionally moves the browser to a new page.
    * Place the mouse over the applet to pause the count; move it off to resume.
    * This class demonstrates most applet methods and features.
    **/

public class Countdown extends JApplet implements ActionListener, MouseListener
{
long remaining; // How many milliseconds remain in the countdown.
long lastUpdate; // When count was last updated
JLabel label; // Displays the count
Timer timer; // Updates the count every second
NumberFormat format; // Format minutes:seconds with leading zeros
Image image; // Image to display along with the time
AudioClip sound; // Sound to play when we reach 00:00

// Called when the applet is first loaded
public void init() {
    // Figure out how long to count for by reading the "minutes" parameter
    // defined in a <param> tag inside the <applet> tag. Convert to ms.
    String minutes = getParameter("minutes");
    if (minutes != null) remaining = Integer.parseInt(minutes) * 60000;
    else remaining = 600000; // 10 minutes by default

    // Create a JLabel to display remaining time, and set some properties.
    label = new JLabel();
    label.setHorizontalAlignment(SwingConstants.CENTER );
    label.setOpaque(true); // So label draws the background color

    // Read some parameters for this JLabel object
    String font = getParameter("font");
    String foreground = getParameter("foreground");
    String background = getParameter("background");
    String imageURL = getParameter("image");

    // Set label properties based on those parameters
    if (font != null) label.setFont(Font.decode(font));
    if (foreground != null) label.setForeground(Color.decode(foreground));
    if (background != null) label.setBackground(Color.decode(background));
    if (imageURL != null) {
        // Load the image, and save it so we can release it later
        image = getImage(getDocumentBase(), imageURL);
        // Now display the image in the JLabel.
        label.setIcon(new ImageIcon(image));
    }

    // Now add the label to the applet. Like JFrame and JDialog, JApplet
    // has a content pane that you add children to
    getContentPane().add(label, BorderLayout.CENTER);

    // Get an optional AudioClip to play when the count expires
    String soundURL = getParameter("sound");
    if (soundURL != null) sound=getAudioClip(getDocumentBase(), soundURL);

    // Obtain a NumberFormat object to convert number of minutes and
    // seconds to strings. Set it up to produce a leading 0 if necessary
    format = NumberFormat.getNumberInstance();
    format.setMinimumIntegerDigits(2); // pad with 0 if necessary

    // Specify a MouseListener to handle mouse events in the applet.
    // Note that the applet implements this interface itself
    addMouseListener(this);

    // Create a timer to call the actionPerformed() method immediately,
    // and then every 1000 milliseconds. Note we don't start the timer yet.
    timer = new Timer(1000, this);
    timer.setInitialDelay(0); // First timer is immediate.
}

// Free up any resources we hold; called when the applet is done
public void destroy() { if (image != null) image.flush(); }

// The browser calls this to start the applet running
// The resume() method is defined below.
public void start() { resume(); } // Start displaying updates

// The browser calls this to stop the applet. It may be restarted later.
// The pause() method is defined below
public void stop() { pause(); } // Stop displaying updates

// Return information about the applet
public String getAppletInfo() {
    return "Countdown applet Copyright (c) 2003 by David Flanagan";
}

// Return information about the applet parameters
public String[][] getParameterInfo() { return parameterInfo; }

// This is the parameter information. One array of strings for each
// parameter. The elements are parameter name, type, and description.
static String[][] parameterInfo = {
    {"minutes", "number", "time, in minutes, to countdown from"},
    {"font", "font", "optional font for the time display"},
    {"foreground", "color", "optional foreground color for the time"},
    {"background", "color", "optional background color"},
    {"image", "image URL", "optional image to display next to countdown"},
    {"sound", "sound URL", "optional sound to play when we reach 00:00"},
    {"newpage", "document URL", "URL to load when timer expires"},
};

// Start or resume the countdown
void resume() {
    // Restore the time we're counting down from and restart the timer.
    lastUpdate = System.currentTimeMillis();
    timer.start(); // Start the timer
}

// Pause the countdown
void pause() {
    // Subtract elapsed time from the remaining time and stop timing
    long now = System.currentTimeMillis();
    remaining -= (now - lastUpdate);
    timer.stop(); // Stop the timer
}

// Update the displayed time. This method is called from actionPerformed()
// which is itself invoked by the timer.
void updateDisplay() {
    long now = System.currentTimeMillis(); // current time in ms
    long elapsed = now - lastUpdate; // ms elapsed since last update
    remaining -= elapsed; // adjust remaining time
    lastUpdate = now; // remember this update time

    // Convert remaining milliseconds to mm:ss format and display
    if (remaining < 0) remaining = 0;
    int minutes = (int)(remaining/60000);
    int seconds = (int)((remaining)/1000);
    label.setText(format.format(minutes) + ":" + format.format(seconds));

    // If we've completed the countdown beep and display new page
    if (remaining == 0) {
        // Stop updating now.
        timer.stop();
        // If we have an alarm sound clip, play it now.
        if (sound != null) sound.play();
        // If there is a newpage URL specified, make the browser
        // load that page now.
        String newpage = getParameter("newpage");
        if (newpage != null) {
            try {
                URL url = new URL(getDocumentBase(), newpage);
                getAppletContext().showDocument(url);
            }
            catch(MalformedURLException ex) {      showStatus(ex.toString()); }
        }
    }
}

// This method implements the ActionListener interface.
// It is invoked once a second by the Timer object
// and updates the JLabel to display minutes and seconds remaining.
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { updateDisplay(); }

// The methods below implement the MouseListener interface. We use
// two of them to pause the countdown when the mouse hovers over the timer.
// Note that we also display a message in the statusline
public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {
    pause(); // pause countdown
    showStatus("Paused"); // display statusline message
}
public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {
    resume(); // resume countdown
    showStatus(""); // clear statusline
}
// These MouseListener methods are unused.
public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {}
public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {}
public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {}
}