How to have a break of a few seconds in execution of program

Question

This question might sound strange but I'm interested to know if somehow i can have a break of a few seconds in execution of a program.For example when you have a simple for() for printing out the elemnts of an array,the elements will be printed all directcly.I was wondering if it is possible to print like the first element then after a break of 2 second print the second one and so on until the last one.Is something like this possible?

You should check out http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3342651/how-can-i-delay-a-java-program-for-a-few-seconds — Dorin Rusu, Apr 23 '16 at 10:32
Thread.sleep(2000); ? https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/sleep.html — Devrim, Apr 23 '16 at 10:32
You could use Thread.currentThread().sleep() but this is not guaranteed to sleep for exactly 2 seconds. Could be more. Or you could use a while loop that subtracts from the current time the time at which the last value was printed and see if the difference is 2 seconds and then print the next value. This is a busy wait while the other option with sleep() leaves your processor free to do other tasks. — MS Srikkanth, Apr 23 '16 at 10:32
However, Java's time resolution is about (literally) a thousand times better than C++, and on a normal PC lies somewhere in the vicinity of 50 nanoseconds. — JayC667, Apr 23 '16 at 10:36
Didn't wait it to seem like self-promotion, so I linked the duplicate to the earlier question. But I would recommend [my approach](http://stackoverflow.com/a/24104427/2071828). — Boris the Spider, Apr 23 '16 at 10:36
@JayC667 - That doesn't change the fact that sleep() depends on the underlying OS's scheduler which doesn't have to be as accurate as java expects it to be. — MS Srikkanth, Apr 23 '16 at 10:38
@BoristheSpider - From the OP's exercise, it seems a ScheduledExecutorService seems to be too much of an ask though that would be the right way to go if your task is more meaningful than printing a single number. — MS Srikkanth, Apr 23 '16 at 10:39
@user3493289 given the OP wants to wait for two **seconds**, waiting for a few extra **microseconds** is unlikely to make a different. Checking the current time would not solve this, as the resolution of the system clock is no better. `System.nanoTime` would be the only way to make your solution more accurate. — Boris the Spider, Apr 23 '16 at 10:40
@user3493289 drift likely isn't a problem in this case. I was more referring to `TimeUnit.sleep` rather than `Thread.sleep`. — Boris the Spider, Apr 23 '16 at 10:40
@BoristheSpider - I didnt disagree with you. Just said that ExecutorService would be an overkill for this exercise. Anyway TimeUnit.sleep internally calls Thread.sleep(). All that I said was that sleep() would be a better solution as the accuracy of 2 seconds is not important in this case and is a better solution than subtracting from the current time as it avoids busy waiting. — MS Srikkanth, Apr 23 '16 at 10:43

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '16 at 10:35

2

Just add the Thread.sleep().

for (...) {
    //print the element
    try {
      Thread.sleep(2000);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        //do things with exception
    }
}

answered Apr 23 '16 at 10:35

Mike B

2,756
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EbraHim · Answer 2 · 2016-04-23T10:38:28.533

You can use Thread.sleep(1000) method in for loop:

public class JavaApp{

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
            System.out.println(i);
            try {
                Thread.sleep(1000);
            } catch (Exception e) {

            }
        }
    }
}

It prints from 0 to 9, one number per second.

run:
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
**BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 10 seconds)**

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 23 '16 at 10:34

0

You can with the function sleep .

Thread.sleep(4000); // 4000 = 4 second

answered Apr 23 '16 at 10:34

Louis Zwawiak

55
10

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 23 '16 at 10:34

0

I recommend to use Thread.sleep()

Try this :

try {
    Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch(InterruptedException ex) {
    Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}

In this way, the program will pause for 1000 milliseconds.

answered Apr 23 '16 at 10:34

Jad Chahine

6,849
8
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When that exception occurs? – EbraHim Apr 23 '16 at 10:39
@EbraHim : This exception is thrown when a thread is waiting, sleeping, or otherwise occupied, and the thread is interrupted, either before or during the activity. – Jad Chahine Apr 23 '16 at 10:41

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 23 '16 at 10:56

0

Thread.currentThread.sleep(time in ms);

answered Apr 23 '16 at 10:56

Tiago Dall'Oca

329
3
15

1

Please add some explanaition of the code or at least a link to the programming reference or guide. – try-catch-finally Apr 23 '16 at 12:07

How to have a break of a few seconds in execution of program

5 Answers5