Timer

Class Overview

Timers schedule one-shot or recurring tasks for execution. Prefer ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor for new code.

Each timer has one thread on which tasks are executed sequentially. When this thread is busy running a task, runnable tasks may be subject to delays.

One-shot are scheduled to run at an absolute time or after a relative delay.

Recurring tasks are scheduled with either a fixed period or a fixed rate:

• With the default fixed-period execution, each successive run of a task is scheduled relative to the start time of the previous run, so two runs are never fired closer together in time than the specified period.
• With fixed-rate execution, the start time of each successive run of a task is scheduled without regard for when the previous run took place. This may result in a series of bunched-up runs (one launched immediately after another) if delays prevent the timer from starting tasks on time.

When a timer is no longer needed, users should call cancel(), which releases the timer's thread and other resources. Timers not explicitly cancelled may hold resources indefinitely.

This class does not offer guarantees about the real-time nature of task scheduling. Multiple threads can share a single timer without synchronization.

Summary

[Expand] Inherited Methods

From class java.lang.Object Object clone() Creates and returns a copy of this Object. boolean equals( Object o) Compares this instance with the specified object and indicates if they are equal. void finalize() Invoked when the garbage collector has detected that this instance is no longer reachable. final Class<?> getClass() Returns the unique instance of Class that represents this object's class. int hashCode() Returns an integer hash code for this object. final void notify() Causes a thread which is waiting on this object's monitor (by means of calling one of the wait() methods) to be woken up. final void notifyAll() Causes all threads which are waiting on this object's monitor (by means of calling one of the wait() methods) to be woken up. String toString() Returns a string containing a concise, human-readable description of this object. final void wait() Causes the calling thread to wait until another thread calls the notify() or notifyAll() method of this object. final void wait(long millis, int nanos) Causes the calling thread to wait until another thread calls the notify() or notifyAll() method of this object or until the specified timeout expires. final void wait(long millis) Causes the calling thread to wait until another thread calls the notify() or notifyAll() method of this object or until the specified timeout expires.