Class Timer
- java.lang.Object
-
- javax.swing.Timer
-
- All Implemented Interfaces:
- Serializable
public class Timer extends Object implements Serializable
Fires one or moreActionEvent
s at specified intervals. An example use is an animation object that uses aTimer
as the trigger for drawing its frames.Setting up a timer involves creating a
Timer
object, registering one or more action listeners on it, and starting the timer using thestart
method. For example, the following code creates and starts a timer that fires an action event once per second (as specified by the first argument to theTimer
constructor). The second argument to theTimer
constructor specifies a listener to receive the timer's action events.int delay = 1000; //milliseconds ActionListener taskPerformer = new ActionListener() { public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt) { //...Perform a task... } }; new Timer(delay, taskPerformer).start();
Timers
are constructed by specifying both a delay parameter and anActionListener
. The delay parameter is used to set both the initial delay and the delay between event firing, in milliseconds. Once the timer has been started, it waits for the initial delay before firing its firstActionEvent
to registered listeners. After this first event, it continues to fire events every time the between-event delay has elapsed, until it is stopped.After construction, the initial delay and the between-event delay can be changed independently, and additional
ActionListeners
may be added.If you want the timer to fire only the first time and then stop, invoke
setRepeats(false)
on the timer.Although all
Timer
s perform their waiting using a single, shared thread (created by the firstTimer
object that executes), the action event handlers forTimer
s execute on another thread -- the event-dispatching thread. This means that the action handlers forTimer
s can safely perform operations on Swing components. However, it also means that the handlers must execute quickly to keep the GUI responsive.In v 1.3, another
Timer
class was added to the Java platform:java.util.Timer
. Both it andjavax.swing.Timer
provide the same basic functionality, butjava.util.Timer
is more general and has more features. Thejavax.swing.Timer
has two features that can make it a little easier to use with GUIs. First, its event handling metaphor is familiar to GUI programmers and can make dealing with the event-dispatching thread a bit simpler. Second, its automatic thread sharing means that you don't have to take special steps to avoid spawning too many threads. Instead, your timer uses the same thread used to make cursors blink, tool tips appear, and so on.You can find further documentation and several examples of using timers by visiting How to Use Timers, a section in The Java Tutorial. For more examples and help in choosing between this
Timer
class andjava.util.Timer
, see Using Timers in Swing Applications, an article in The Swing Connection.Warning: Serialized objects of this class will not be compatible with future Swing releases. The current serialization support is appropriate for short term storage or RMI between applications running the same version of Swing. As of 1.4, support for long term storage of all JavaBeans™ has been added to the
java.beans
package. Please seeXMLEncoder
.- See Also:
-
java.util.Timer
-
-
Field Summary
Fields Modifier and Type Field and Description protected EventListenerList
listenerList
-
Constructor Summary
Constructors Constructor and Description Timer(int delay, ActionListener listener)
Creates aTimer
and initializes both the initial delay and between-event delay todelay
milliseconds.
-
Method Summary
All Methods Static Methods Instance Methods Concrete Methods Modifier and Type Method and Description void
addActionListener(ActionListener listener)
Adds an action listener to theTimer
.protected void
fireActionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
Notifies all listeners that have registered interest for notification on this event type.String
getActionCommand()
Returns the string that will be delivered as the action command inActionEvent
s fired by this timer.ActionListener[]
getActionListeners()
Returns an array of all the action listeners registered on this timer.int
getDelay()
Returns the delay, in milliseconds, between firings of action events.int
getInitialDelay()
Returns theTimer
's initial delay.<T extends EventListener>
T[]getListeners(Class<T> listenerType)
Returns an array of all the objects currently registered asFooListener
s upon thisTimer
.static boolean
getLogTimers()
Returnstrue
if logging is enabled.boolean
isCoalesce()
Returnstrue
if theTimer
coalesces multiple pending action events.boolean
isRepeats()
Returnstrue
(the default) if theTimer
will send an action event to its listeners multiple times.boolean
isRunning()
Returnstrue
if theTimer
is running.void
removeActionListener(ActionListener listener)
Removes the specified action listener from theTimer
.void
restart()
Restarts theTimer
, canceling any pending firings and causing it to fire with its initial delay.void
setActionCommand(String command)
Sets the string that will be delivered as the action command inActionEvent
s fired by this timer.void
setCoalesce(boolean flag)
Sets whether theTimer
coalesces multiple pendingActionEvent
firings.void
setDelay(int delay)
Sets theTimer
's between-event delay, the number of milliseconds between successive action events.void
setInitialDelay(int initialDelay)
Sets theTimer
's initial delay, the time in milliseconds to wait after the timer is started before firing the first event.static void
setLogTimers(boolean flag)
Enables or disables the timer log.void
setRepeats(boolean flag)
Ifflag
isfalse
, instructs theTimer
to send only one action event to its listeners.void
start()
Starts theTimer
, causing it to start sending action events to its listeners.void
stop()
Stops theTimer
, causing it to stop sending action events to its listeners.
-
-
-
Field Detail
listenerList
protected EventListenerList listenerList
-
Constructor Detail
Timer
public Timer(int delay, ActionListener listener)
Creates aTimer
and initializes both the initial delay and between-event delay todelay
milliseconds. Ifdelay
is less than or equal to zero, the timer fires as soon as it is started. Iflistener
is notnull
, it's registered as an action listener on the timer.- Parameters:
-
delay
- milliseconds for the initial and between-event delay -
listener
- an initial listener; can benull
- See Also:
-
addActionListener(java.awt.event.ActionListener)
,setInitialDelay(int)
,setRepeats(boolean)
-
Method Detail
addActionListener
public void addActionListener(ActionListener listener)
Adds an action listener to theTimer
.- Parameters:
-
listener
- the listener to add - See Also:
-
Timer(int, java.awt.event.ActionListener)
removeActionListener
public void removeActionListener(ActionListener listener)
Removes the specified action listener from theTimer
.- Parameters:
-
listener
- the listener to remove
getActionListeners
public ActionListener[] getActionListeners()
Returns an array of all the action listeners registered on this timer.- Returns:
-
all of the timer's
ActionListener
s or an empty array if no action listeners are currently registered - Since:
- 1.4
- See Also:
-
addActionListener(java.awt.event.ActionListener)
,removeActionListener(java.awt.event.ActionListener)
fireActionPerformed
protected void fireActionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
Notifies all listeners that have registered interest for notification on this event type.- Parameters:
-
e
- the action event to fire - See Also:
-
EventListenerList
getListeners
public <T extends EventListener> T[] getListeners(Class<T> listenerType)
Returns an array of all the objects currently registered asFooListener
s upon thisTimer
.FooListener
s are registered using theaddFooListener
method.You can specify the
listenerType
argument with a class literal, such asFooListener.class
. For example, you can query aTimer
instancet
for its action listeners with the following code:ActionListener[] als = (ActionListener[])(t.getListeners(ActionListener.class));
If no such listeners exist, this method returns an empty array.- Parameters:
-
listenerType
- the type of listeners requested; this parameter should specify an interface that descends fromjava.util.EventListener
- Returns:
-
an array of all objects registered as
FooListener
s on this timer, or an empty array if no such listeners have been added - Throws:
-
ClassCastException
- iflistenerType
doesn't specify a class or interface that implementsjava.util.EventListener
- Since:
- 1.3
- See Also:
-
getActionListeners()
,addActionListener(java.awt.event.ActionListener)
,removeActionListener(java.awt.event.ActionListener)
setLogTimers
public static void setLogTimers(boolean flag)
Enables or disables the timer log. When enabled, a message is posted toSystem.out
whenever the timer goes off.- Parameters:
-
flag
-true
to enable logging - See Also:
-
getLogTimers()
getLogTimers
public static boolean getLogTimers()
Returnstrue
if logging is enabled.- Returns:
-
true
if logging is enabled; otherwise, false - See Also:
-
setLogTimers(boolean)
setDelay
public void setDelay(int delay)
Sets theTimer
's between-event delay, the number of milliseconds between successive action events. This does not affect the initial delay property, which can be set by thesetInitialDelay
method.- Parameters:
-
delay
- the delay in milliseconds - See Also:
-
setInitialDelay(int)
getDelay
public int getDelay()
Returns the delay, in milliseconds, between firings of action events.- See Also:
-
setDelay(int)
,getInitialDelay()
setInitialDelay
public void setInitialDelay(int initialDelay)
Sets theTimer
's initial delay, the time in milliseconds to wait after the timer is started before firing the first event. Upon construction, this is set to be the same as the between-event delay, but then its value is independent and remains unaffected by changes to the between-event delay.- Parameters:
-
initialDelay
- the initial delay, in milliseconds - See Also:
-
setDelay(int)
getInitialDelay
public int getInitialDelay()
Returns theTimer
's initial delay.- See Also:
-
setInitialDelay(int)
,setDelay(int)
setRepeats
public void setRepeats(boolean flag)
Ifflag
isfalse
, instructs theTimer
to send only one action event to its listeners.- Parameters:
-
flag
- specifyfalse
to make the timer stop after sending its first action event
isRepeats
public boolean isRepeats()
Returnstrue
(the default) if theTimer
will send an action event to its listeners multiple times.- See Also:
-
setRepeats(boolean)
setCoalesce
public void setCoalesce(boolean flag)
Sets whether theTimer
coalesces multiple pendingActionEvent
firings. A busy application may not be able to keep up with aTimer
's event generation, causing multiple action events to be queued. When processed, the application sends these events one after the other, causing theTimer
's listeners to receive a sequence of events with no delay between them. Coalescing avoids this situation by reducing multiple pending events to a single event.Timer
s coalesce events by default.- Parameters:
-
flag
- specifyfalse
to turn off coalescing
isCoalesce
public boolean isCoalesce()
Returnstrue
if theTimer
coalesces multiple pending action events.- See Also:
-
setCoalesce(boolean)
setActionCommand
public void setActionCommand(String command)
Sets the string that will be delivered as the action command inActionEvent
s fired by this timer.null
is an acceptable value.- Parameters:
-
command
- the action command - Since:
- 1.6
getActionCommand
public String getActionCommand()
Returns the string that will be delivered as the action command inActionEvent
s fired by this timer. May benull
, which is also the default.- Returns:
- the action command used in firing events
- Since:
- 1.6
start
public void start()
Starts theTimer
, causing it to start sending action events to its listeners.- See Also:
-
stop()
isRunning
public boolean isRunning()
Returnstrue
if theTimer
is running.- See Also:
-
start()
stop
public void stop()
Stops theTimer
, causing it to stop sending action events to its listeners.- See Also:
-
start()
restart
public void restart()
Restarts theTimer
, canceling any pending firings and causing it to fire with its initial delay.
-
Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.
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