[javascript] How to create javascript delay function

I have a javascript file, and in several places I want to add a small delay, so the script would reach that point, wait 3 seconds, and then continue with the rest of the code. The best way that I thought of doing this was to create a function, which I could call from anywhere in the script.

function startDelay(lengthOfDelay)
{
//code to make it delay for lengthOfDelay amount of time
}

However, I can not find any way to implement the code to make it wait. I had a look at setTimeout, but you needed to hard code the function into it, which made it no good for me.

Is there any way that I can get the script to juct pause for a few seconds? I have no problem with the UI freezing whilst the code is paused.

If not, is there a way that I could use the PHP sleep() to achieve this? (I know that PHP is server side and Javascript is client side, but maybe there is a way that I have not heard of.)

Ah yes. Welcome to Asynchronous execution.

Basically, pausing a script would cause the browser and page to become unresponsive for 3 seconds. This is horrible for web apps, and so isn't supported.

Instead, you have to think "event-based". Use setTimeout to call a function after a certain amount of time, which will continue to run the JavaScript on the page during that time.

You can create a delay using the following example

setInterval(function(){alert("Hello")},3000);

Replace 3000 with # of milliseconds

You can place the content of what you want executed inside the function.

You do not need to use an anonymous function with setTimeout. You can do something like this:

setTimeout(doSomething, 3000);

function doSomething() {
   //do whatever you want here
}