Is there a way to make a button press recursive in C# (press itself again)?

Question

I want to make a button run some code, then press itself again in Windows Forms.

When I call the button itself I get the error:

 System.StackOverflowException
       HResult=0x800703E9
       Source=<Cannot evaluate the exception source>
       StackTrace:
     <Cannot evaluate the exception stack trace>

I want to make a resource monitor program to get myself familiarized with C#. Right now I'm stuck at the string processing and displaying a constantly changing string. I'm using a randomly generated number as a placeholder, that I want to show and change permanently, imitating real data pulling.

The code I have:

public void Start_Click(object sender, EventArgs e){
      var usage =new CpuUsage(); //placeholder class for getting the CPU use data
      usage.setCPU(); //gets a random number
      this.CPU.Text = usage.cpuUsage; //show the usage data on a textbox
      Start_Click(null, EventArgs.Empty); //call this button again here
}

What I want to get look something like:

Get data
Show data using text box
Redo this

That's not a good idea. If you want to get repeated random data to update a field on a form then take a look at [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/23137100) for more info — Simply Ged, Sep 18 '19 at 22:10
Polling is the term, not pulling. And the button is not the right tool for that. Use a timer. Ideally the Windows Forms timer. One button click starts the timer. Anotehr stops it. And every tick, you do your work. As long as you keep the invervall in the double digits at least, and the process is halfway quick, ther is not much to worry about. — Christopher, Sep 18 '19 at 22:10

Rufus L · Answer 1 · 2019-09-18T22:30:38.047

I think what you're looking for is the Timer control. You can set it to run at a certain interval, and define the code that runs at that interval. You can also control the starting and stopping of the timer, if you want to only start it when a button is pressed.

For example, drop a Timer control on your form and try out this code:

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Set the interval to how often you want it to execute
    timer1.Interval = (int)TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1).TotalMilliseconds;
    // Set a method to run on every interval
    timer1.Tick += Timer1_Tick;
}

public void Start_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // start or stop the timer
    timer1.Enabled = !timer1.Enabled;

    // Above we are just flipping the 'Enabled' property, but
    // you could also call timer1.Start() (which is the same as 
    // setting 'Enabled = true') or timer1.Stop() (which is
    // the same as setting 'Enabled = false')
}

// Put code in this method that should execute when the timer interval is reached
private void Timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var usage = new CpuUsage(); //placeholder class for getting the CPU use data
    usage.setCPU(); //gets a random number
    this.CPU.Text = usage.cpuUsage; //show the usage data on a textbox
}

Is there a way to make a button press recursive in C# (press itself again)?

1 Answers1