why setTimeout is not executed in javascript - javascript

I have a function to sleep in javascript like below:
var is_sleep = true;
function sleep(time){
if (is_sleep){
is_sleep = false;
setTimeout("sleep(time)", time);
}else{
is_sleep = true;
}
}
sleep(3000);
However it runs through the statements for is_sleep=true, doesn't run through is_sleep=false statements and doesn't sleep any more.
Could someone tell what the reason is? Thank you in advance.

It's likely that setTimeout is being called, but the string passed to it is failing, as the scope will no longer contain time, which you're referencing. Try replacing that line with this:
setTimeout(function() { sleep(time); }, time);
...which defines a closure, which uses the correct scope. You could also try this:
setTimeout(sleep, time, time);
...which will pass time as an argument to sleep.

setTimeout runs asynchronously meaning it's not blocking your code execution. Perhaps you knew that, but the function will never live up to the name you chose for it.
First call sleep(3000); calls the sleep function, making the is_sleep variable false, setting a timer, and then immediately returns code execution (to whatever comes after sleep(3000); ;))
If setTimeout was called properly (setTimeout(sleep,time,time);), after 3 seconds, the function would again be called setting is_sleep back to true.

Related

Recursion in js setTimeout how it work? and why it work?

function printNumbers(from, to) {
let current = from;
function go() {
alert(current);
if (current < to) {
setTimeOut(go, 1000); //recursion to function go()
}
current++; // because of recursion execution should not reach this point
}, 1000);
}
printNumbers(5, 10);
Please explain to me why ^current++^ works immediately? but because of recursion it should not work. isnt it? please explain me who understand how it work and why
setTimeout is not blocking. It puts a function on a queue to be called when some time has passed. The rest of the function still executes without pause.
There is no return statement or anything else that would stop the JS engine from reaching the current++; statement.
To supplement Quentin's answer, this setTimeout(go, 1000) line (FYI, setTimeout is the proper spelling, not setTimeOut) isn't actually doing any recursion. It's passing off a function go to be called after 1000 ms in the event loop after the stack empties (the same stack that can do recursion and overflow). It's incidental that this all happens within the same function that's passed as a parameter to the timeout which makes it visually look recursive.
What happens is the setTimeout line runs and adds the function go to the event loop and guarantees a delay of at least 1000 ms. Then, the rest of the synchronous code runs, including the rest of go and current++;. Later on, when the stack is empty, tasks on the loop are executed in order, including go (assuming the 1000 ms timer has elapsed).
This explains why code like:
(function run() {
requestAnimationFrame(run);
// do stuff
})();
never overflows the stack: it's not actually recursion and each call frame is destroyed before the next call happens.
As an aside, it may be surprising that
(function run() {
requestAnimationFrame(run);
// do stuff
})();
and
(function run() {
// do stuff
requestAnimationFrame(run);
})();
behave pretty much the same. The reason is that the next run callback is guaranteed to execute once all synchronous code (the current call to run and anything else on the call stack) completes execution, so it's not like the location causes a block in synchronous execution and the child call gets to do work as would be the case with recursion.

Call Stack while using setTimeout()

I am a bit confused about setTimeout.I want to confirm whether the output for the following code will always be:
inside abc
inside sample
The code:
function abc() {
xyz();
// interactions and modifications in DOM
$("#id1").append("something");
$("#id2").val("set something");
$("#id3").after("create some dynamic element");
// 10 to 20 interaction more...
console.log('inside abc');
}
function xyz() {
setTimeout(function() {
sample();
},0);
}
function sample() {
console.log('inside sample')
}
It would be great,if somebody could explain the whole flow with the call stack.
Yes, it will always have that output.
The callback inside a setTimeout will not be called until the execution context is clear - i.e. the currently executing sequence of code has finished.
This means that even if you do
setTimeout(function () { console.log("1 second!"); }, 1000);
var start = +new Date();
while ((+new Date()) - start < 5000) {}
1 second! will not be logged any sooner than 5 seconds have passed.
setTimeout() will run asynchronously after finishing current execution block. So output should be same always:
inside abc
inside sample
Javascript internally manage an event queues internally for all async tasks. Every time it checks its async queue after finishing current execution block.
Yes, the console output will always be the same. setTimeout's callback function is executed asynchronously after the context that called it is cleared. When setTimeout is called, it places its callback function on the stack and returns to the current execution context. When that is done (in your example, when abc is fully executed), the callback function is executed, which in your example basically calls sample immediately. So your code output will never be different.
The fact that setTimeout's callbacks are themselves executed asynchronously can be seen if you placed a longer setTimeout function somewhere inside abc before calling xyz:
function abc() {
setTimeout(function(){
console.log('wait')
},1000);
xyz();
console.log('inside abc');
}
function xyz() {
setTimeout(function(){
sample();
} ,0);
}
function sample() {
console.log('inside sample');
}
abc();
...your console will log:
inside abc
inside sample
wait
To hold sample's execution until the longer timeout is complete you would need to place the setTimeout calling sample inside the longer setTimeout.
If setTimeout's callback is ever behaving differently, it's most likely due to being accidentally passed a function call instead of a function pointer, like this:
setTimeout(sample(),0);
instead of
setTimeout(sample,0)
Also, just in case you didn't know (or for others), you can add
debugger;
at any point(s) in your Javascript code and then run the code to view the callstack at that point using dev tools (in Chrome it is in the right panel under 'Sources').

Safely clear JavaScript timeout

I have created a JavaScript function that does the following:
function myFunction() {
DoStuff;
watch = setTimeout(myFunction, 1000);
}
where
watch
is a global variable initially set to null.
Then, I have a second function, that can be called at any moment, of the form:
function mySecond() {
DoStuff;
clearTimeout(watch);
}
Now, it happens sometimes that, although the second function is called and the timeout is somehow cleared, the first function is called another time. I guess this is happening because when the second function is called, a request for the first function has already been sent, and thus the timer works another time, and keeps calling itself over and over... I would like to point out that this does not happen always, I guess it depends on a specific timing condition you can encounter.
How to safely remove ALL the possibilities that the first function is called again?
Problem with this code is watch holds the last timeout only. This should fix it
function myFunction() {
DoStuff;
if (watch) { clearTimeout(watch); }
watch = setTimeout(myFunction, 1000);
}

Pause JavaScript - setTime

I have created a JavaScript version of the Little Man Computer based on the Java one at http://www.atkinson.yorku.ca/~sychen/research/LMC/LMCHome.html
I have it working in by stepping through each instruction. I have a function called stepCode() that does this.
What I want is a function that will run the program, pausing for a second between each step until the simulated program ends.
The code I have is this:
function runProgram()
{
var milliseconds = 1000;
var timeOut;
programRunning = true;
while(programRunning)
{
timeOut = setTimeOut(stepCode(), milliseconds);
}
}
This seems does not work. It still performs all the stepCode() calls one after the other very quickly. I want to pause between each stepCode() call.
I'm obviously doing something wrong. Any ideas?
You should use setInterval instead of setTimeout. Additionally, you need to reference the function, not call the function:
var timeOut; // global timeout variable to ensure both methods have access to it.
function runProgram() {
var milliseconds = 1000;
timeOut = setInterval(stepCode, milliseconds); // use setInterval instead of setTimeout
}
function stepCode {
// ... code processing here ...
// I assume you are setting programRunning to false at some point in this method.
// Instead of setting programRunning = false, you would do:
clearInterval(timeOut);
// Note, if you only have one timeout interval set, you can use clearInterval();
}
setInterval will cause the stepCode function to run every 'milliseconds' until you call clearInterval(timeOut);; setTimeout will only queue it up once. Anything that is queued via setTimeout will not execute until the current flow of code has been completed. As a result, programRunning will run and queue up several setTimeout executions. Once the programRunning variable hit false, the current code flow will finish and ALL of the queues will wait 1 second, and effectively execute all at the same time, or in rapid succession.
When you pass in a method call (e.g. stepCode()), it will call the method. You have to pass a reference to the function stepCode (notice no parens), to ensure that it knows what to run each time it executes.
This Fiddle Demo simulates a counter, which is common thing people attempt to execute using setInterval. It demonstrates the basic concept and use of setInterval.
In addition to suggested setInterval use that will call stepCode at 1 second intervals until cleared (or until the page is reloaded), and correction of removing () after stepCode that results in immediate stepCode executon, you can still use setTimeout if they are chained as shown below. Depending on what stepCode does and how long it takes, this solution has an advantage of ensuring that there is 1 second of idle time between the end of the previous and the beginning of the next stepCodes.
var milliseconds = 1000;
function runProgram()
{
programRunning = true;
stepCodeWrapper();
}
function stepCodeWrapper() {
if (programRunning) {
stepCode();
setTimeOut(stepCodeWrapper, milliseconds);
}
}
Just try with:
timeOut = setInterval(stepCode, milliseconds);
Bic, thanks for your swift response. You are correct about the programRunning flag being set to false inside the stepCode() function. I've set it as a global variable so that I could possibly halt the program by pressing a button, but thats another problem.
Tried both setInterval and setTimeout. You are right about it repeatedly calling the function. Using either method locks up the browser with repeated function calls. This is probably as its in a while loop. I cannot think of another was to repeatedly call the stepCode() function otherwise.
I sort of understand the difference between setInterval & setTimeout. Thanks, and I understand that would make the while loop redundant, but then how to stop it calling the stepCode function when the programRunning flag is set to false?

Javascript Delay

I understand that Javascript does not have a delay(500) method, which would delay execution for 500 milliseconds, so I have been trying to get around that by using setTimeout and setInterval.
for(var i =0; i< 10; i++){
/* Animation Code */
var doNothing = function(){var m =5;}
setTimeout(doNothing, 50);
}
However, this does not seem to work. I essentially want some code that stops the execution for n milliseconds and then continues execution.
Practically speaking, you can't do this. Deal with it and find a callback-based way instead. Typically this means putting everything that should happen after the delay in the callback itself.
For example, you can't do this to make baz wait:
foo();
setTimeout(function() {
bar();
}, 500);
baz();
so you do the only thing you can:
foo();
setTimeout(function() {
bar();
baz();
}, 500);
The setInterval() Method wait a specified number of milliseconds, and then execute a specified function, and it will continue to execute the function, once at every given time-interval.
Syntax
window.setInterval("javascript function",milliseconds);
The window.setInterval() method can be written without the window prefix.
The first parameter of setInterval() should be a function.
How to Stop the Execution?
The clearInterval() method is used to stop further executions of the function specified in the setInterval() method.
Syntax
window.clearInterval(intervalVariable)
The window.clearInterval() method can be written without the window prefix.
To be able to use the clearInterval() method, you must use a global variable when creating the interval method:
myVar=setInterval("javascript function",milliseconds);
Then you will be able to stop the execution by calling the clearInterval() method.
good refrence
If you came from the language/framework/API background, where you could suspend the execution with something like Sleep, or process user input synchronously with something like DoEvents, it won't work in JavaScript.
There is no way you can block the JavaScript event loop with something like this, for a good reason: UI responsiveness. In JavaScript, everything is asynchronous. You can use setTimeout to do something upon a timer event, but the user is still able to access the UI between the timer events or even navigate away from the page.
To address your code fragment, what you are looking for is called an asynchronous state machine. It allows to preserve the state of the code between stop/continue (in your case, it's the state of the animation, although i variable is also a part of it):
(function()
{
var i = 0;
var nextStep = function()
{
if (i<10)
{
/* Animation Code */
i++;
setTimeout(nextStep, 500);
}
}
nextStep();
})();
It will be much easier to code when all browsers support the new yield keyword:
http://pag.forbeslindesay.co.uk
On a side note, some other answers suggest using setInterval. There is a subtle but important difference between delay and interval. Delay is the time between two steps. Interval is the time since the previous step started. If each step of animation takes 200ms, and you use the interval of 500ms, the actual delay between two steps will be 300ms, not 500ms as probably expected.
setInterval() - executes a function, over and over again, at specified time intervals
To pass a function as a string, be sure to append the function name with parentheses.
window.setInterval("someFunction()", 5000);
When passing a function pointer, do not include the parentheses.
window.setInterval(someFunction, 5000);
var timer_id=setInterval(doNothing,500);
If you want to stop the execution
make the timer_id variable global
clearInterval(timer_id);
Much cleaner and readable code would be if you use RxJS
Here is an example:
Rx.Observable
.interval(1000)
.take(10)
.subscribe((x) => console.log(`${x}: ${new Date().toLocaleTimeString()}`))
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/rxjs/4.1.0/rx.lite.min.js"></script>
interval - is a time delay between your animation calls. In my example
it's 1000ms
take - number of times to execute subscribe - is function
that will be called every 1000ms for 10 times (in your case it will be
your animation code)
Here some something that could help.
function delay( s , callback )
{
var fct_ref = "tmp_" + Math.random().toString(36).replace(/[^a-z]+/g, '').substr(0, 6).toUpperCase();
var tmp_fct = ( callback !== undefined ) ? callback.toString().match(/^[^{]+\{(.*?)\}$/)[1] : "";
document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].insertAdjacentHTML("beforeend","<div id='"+fct_ref+"' style='background-color:transparent;color:transparent;position:absolute;top:"+window.scrollY+"px;left:"+window.scrollX+"px;opacity:1;transition:all "+s+"s'>-</div>");
var func = new Function("return function transition"+fct_ref+"(e){ e.target.removeEventListener('transitionend' , transition"+fct_ref+", false ); "+tmp_fct+" ; document.getElementById('"+fct_ref+"').parentNode.removeChild(document.getElementById('"+fct_ref+"')); };")();
document.getElementById(""+fct_ref).addEventListener("transitionend", func , false );
document.getElementById(""+fct_ref).offsetHeight;
document.getElementById(""+fct_ref).style.opacity="0";
}
delay(1, function() { console.log("ANIMATION_1"); } );
delay(3, function() { console.log("ANIMATION_3"); } );
delay(5, function() { console.log("ANIMATION_5"); } );

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