[c] How to use timer in C?

What is the method to use a timer in C? I need to wait until 500 ms for a job. Please mention any good way to do this job. I used sleep(3); But this method does not do any work in that time duration. I have something that will try until that time to get any input.

Yes, you need a loop. If you already have a main loop (most GUI event-driven stuff does) you can probably stick your timer into that. Use:

#include <time.h> 
time_t my_t, fire_t;

Then (for times over 1 second), initialize your timer by reading the current time:

my_t = time(NULL);

Add the number of seconds your timer should wait and store it in fire_t. A time_t is essentially a uint32_t, you may need to cast it.

Inside your loop do another

my_t = time(NULL);

if (my_t > fire_t) then consider the timer fired and do the stuff you want there. That will probably include resetting it by doing another fire_t = time(NULL) + seconds_to_wait for next time.

A time_t is a somewhat antiquated unix method of storing time as the number of seconds since midnight 1/1/1970 but it has many advantages. For times less than 1 second you need to use gettimeofday() (microseconds) or clock_gettime() (nanoseconds) and deal with a struct timeval or struct timespec which is a time_t and the microseconds or nanoseconds since that 1 second mark. Making a timer works the same way except when you add your time to wait you need to remember to manually do the carry (into the time_t) if the resulting microseconds or nanoseconds value goes over 1 second. Yes, it's messy. See man 2 time, man gettimeofday, man clock_gettime.

sleep(), usleep(), nanosleep() have a hidden benefit. You see it as pausing your program, but what they really do is release the CPU for that amount of time. Repeatedly polling by reading the time and comparing to the done time (are we there yet?) will burn a lot of CPU cycles which may slow down other programs running on the same machine (and use more electricity/battery). It's better to sleep() most of the time then start checking the time.

If you're trying to sleep and do work at the same time you need threads.

Here's a solution I used (it needs #include <time.h>):

int msec = 0, trigger = 10; /* 10ms */
clock_t before = clock();

do {
  /*
   * Do something to busy the CPU just here while you drink a coffee
   * Be sure this code will not take more than `trigger` ms
   */

  clock_t difference = clock() - before;
  msec = difference * 1000 / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;
  iterations++;
} while ( msec < trigger );

printf("Time taken %d seconds %d milliseconds (%d iterations)\n",
  msec/1000, msec%1000, iterations);

May be this examples help to you

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>


/*
    Implementation simple timeout

    Input: count milliseconds as number

    Usage:
        setTimeout(1000) - timeout on 1 second
        setTimeout(10100) - timeout on 10 seconds and 100 milliseconds
 */
void setTimeout(int milliseconds)
{
    // If milliseconds is less or equal to 0
    // will be simple return from function without throw error
    if (milliseconds <= 0) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Count milliseconds for timeout is less or equal to 0\n");
        return;
    }

    // a current time of milliseconds
    int milliseconds_since = clock() * 1000 / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

    // needed count milliseconds of return from this timeout
    int end = milliseconds_since + milliseconds;

    // wait while until needed time comes
    do {
        milliseconds_since = clock() * 1000 / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;
    } while (milliseconds_since <= end);
}


int main()
{

    // input from user for time of delay in seconds
    int delay;
    printf("Enter delay: ");
    scanf("%d", &delay);

    // counter downtime for run a rocket while the delay with more 0
    do {
        // erase the previous line and display remain of the delay
        printf("\033[ATime left for run rocket: %d\n", delay);

        // a timeout for display
        setTimeout(1000);

        // decrease the delay to 1
        delay--;

    } while (delay >= 0);

    // a string for display rocket
    char rocket[3] = "-->";

    // a string for display all trace of the rocket and the rocket itself
    char *rocket_trace = (char *) malloc(100 * sizeof(char));

    // display trace of the rocket from a start to the end
    int i;
    char passed_way[100] = "";
    for (i = 0; i <= 50; i++) {
        setTimeout(25);
        sprintf(rocket_trace, "%s%s", passed_way, rocket);
        passed_way[i] = ' ';
        printf("\033[A");
        printf("| %s\n", rocket_trace);
    }

    // erase a line and write a new line
    printf("\033[A");
    printf("\033[2K");
    puts("Good luck!");

    return 0;
}

Compile file, run and delete after (my preference)

$ gcc timeout.c -o timeout && ./timeout && rm timeout

Try run it for yourself to see result.

Notes:

Testing environment

$ uname -a
Linux wlysenko-Aspire 3.13.0-37-generic #64-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 22 21:28:38 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ gcc --version
gcc (Ubuntu 4.8.5-2ubuntu1~14.04.1) 4.8.5
Copyright (C) 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.