Python threading timer - repeat function every n seconds

Question

I want to fire off a function every 0 5 seconds and be able to start and stop and reset the timer  I m not too knowledgeable of how Python threads work and am having difficulties with the python timer   However  I keep getting RuntimeError  threads can only be started once when I execute threading timer start   twice  Is there a work around for this  I tried applying threading timer cancel   before each start   Pseudo code   t threading timer 0 5 function  while True      t cancel       t start

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Using timer threads-  from threading import Timer Thread Event   class perpetualTimer        def   init   self t hFunction         self t t       self hFunction   hFunction       self thread   Timer self t self handle function      def handle function self         self hFunction         self thread   Timer self t self handle function        self thread start       def start self         self thread start       def cancel self         self thread cancel    def printer        print  ipsem lorem   t   perpetualTimer 5 printer  t start     this can be stopped by t cancel

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I had to do this for a project  What I ended up doing was start a separate thread for the function  t   threading Thread target  heartbeat  args  worker    t start         heartbeat is my function  worker is one of my arguments      inside of my heartbeat function   def heartbeat worker        while True          time sleep 5           all of my code   So when I start the thread the function will repeatedly wait 5 seconds  run all of my code  and do that indefinitely  If you want to kill the process just kill the thread

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In the interest of providing a correct answer using Timer as the OP requested  I ll improve upon swapnil jariwala s answer   from threading import Timer   class InfiniteTimer           A Timer class that does not stop  unless you want it to          def   init   self  seconds  target           self  should continue   False         self is running   False         self seconds   seconds         self target   target         self thread   None      def  handle target self           self is running   True         self target           self is running   False         self  start timer        def  start timer self           if self  should continue    Code could have been running when cancel was called              self thread   Timer self seconds  self  handle target              self thread start        def start self           if not self  should continue and not self is running              self  should continue   True             self  start timer           else              print  Timer already started or running  please wait if you re restarting         def cancel self           if self thread is not None              self  should continue   False   Just in case thread is running and cancel fails              self thread cancel           else              print  Timer never started or failed to initialize      def tick        print  ipsem lorem      Example Usage t   InfiniteTimer 0 5  tick  t start

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from threading import Timer def TaskManager         do stuff     t   Timer  1  TaskManager       t start    TaskManager     Here is small sample  it will help beter understanding how it runs  function taskManager   at the end create delayed function call to it self   Try to change  dalay  variable and you will able to see difference  from threading import Timer   sleep    ------------------------------------------ DATA      dalay   0 25   sec counter   0 allow run   True FIFO   True  def taskManager         global counter  DATA  delay  allow run     counter    1      if len DATA   gt  0          if FIFO              print     str counter     new data     str DATA pop 0                else              print     str counter     new data     str DATA pop              else          print     str counter     no data        if allow run           delayed method function call to it self         t   Timer  dalay  taskManager           t start        else          print   END task-manager  disabled      ------------------------------------------ def main         DATA append  data from main    0        sleep 2      DATA append  data from main    1        sleep 2      ------------------------------------------ print   START task-manager    taskManager     sleep 2  DATA append  first data     sleep 2  DATA append  second data    print   START main      main   print   END main        sleep 2  DATA append  last data    allow run   False

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From Equivalent of setInterval in python   import threading  def setInterval interval       def decorator function           def wrapper  args    kwargs               stopped   threading Event                def loop      executed in another thread                 while not stopped wait interval     until stopped                     function  args    kwargs               t   threading Thread target loop              t daemon   True   stop if the program exits             t start               return stopped         return wrapper     return decorator   Usage    setInterval  5  def function               stop   function     start timer  the first call is in  5 seconds stop set     stop the loop stop   function     start new timer       stop set      Or here s the same functionality but as a standalone function instead of a decorator   cancel future calls   call repeatedly 60  print   Hello  World         cancel future calls      Here s how to do it without using threads

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I have changed some code in swapnil-jariwala code to make a little console clock   from threading import Timer  Thread  Event from datetime import datetime  class PT         def   init   self  t  hFunction           self t   t         self hFunction   hFunction         self thread   Timer self t  self handle function       def handle function self           self hFunction           self thread   Timer self t  self handle function          self thread start        def start self           self thread start    def printer        tempo   datetime today       h m s   tempo hour  tempo minute  tempo second     print f  h   m   s      t   PT 1  printer  t start        OUTPUT    gt  gt  gt  11 39 11 11 39 12 11 39 13 11 39 14 11 39 15 11 39 16       Timer with a tkinter Graphic interface  This code puts the clock timer in a little window with tkinter  from threading import Timer  Thread  Event from datetime import datetime import tkinter as tk  app   tk Tk   lab   tk Label app  text  Timer will start in a sec   lab pack     class perpetualTimer         def   init   self  t  hFunction           self t   t         self hFunction   hFunction         self thread   Timer self t  self handle function       def handle function self           self hFunction           self thread   Timer self t  self handle function          self thread start        def start self           self thread start        def cancel self           self thread cancel     def printer        tempo   datetime today       clock              format tempo hour  tempo minute  tempo second      try          lab  text     clock     except RuntimeError          exit     t   perpetualTimer 1  printer  t start   app mainloop     An example of flashcards game  sort of   from threading import Timer  Thread  Event from datetime import datetime   class perpetualTimer         def   init   self  t  hFunction           self t   t         self hFunction   hFunction         self thread   Timer self t  self handle function       def handle function self           self hFunction           self thread   Timer self t  self handle function          self thread start        def start self           self thread start        def cancel self           self thread cancel     x   datetime today   start   x second   def printer        global questions  counter  start     x   datetime today       tempo   x second     if tempo - 3  gt  start          show ans        print   n          format tempo hour  tempo minute  tempo second   end         print       print  -    questions counter       counter    1     if counter    len answers           counter   0   def show ans        global answers  c2     print  It is     format answers c2        c2    1     if c2    len answers           c2   0   questions     What is the capital of Italy                  What is the capital of France                  What is the capital of England                  What is the capital of Spain     answers    Rome    Paris    London    Madrid   counter   0 c2   0 print  Get ready to answer   t   perpetualTimer 3  printer  t start     output   Get ready to answer  gt  gt  gt   -What is the capital of Italy  It is Rome  -What is the capital of France  It is Paris  -What is the capital of England

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I like right2clicky s answer  especially in that it doesn t require a Thread to be torn down and a new one created every time the Timer ticks  In addition  it s an easy override to create a class with a timer callback that gets called periodically  That s my normal use case   class MyClass RepeatTimer       def   init   self  period           super     init   period  self on timer       def on timer self           print  Tick     if   name         main         mc   MyClass 1      mc start       time sleep 5      mc cancel

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I have implemented a class that works as a timer   I leave the link here in case anyone needs it  https   github com ivanhalencp python tree master xTimer

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The best way is to start the timer thread once  Inside your timer thread you d code the following  class MyThread Thread       def   init   self  event           Thread   init   self          self stopped   event      def run self           while not self stopped wait 0 5               print  my thread                 call a function   In the code that started the timer  you can then set the stopped event to stop the timer   stopFlag   Event   thread   MyThread stopFlag  thread start     this will stop the timer stopFlag set

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I have come up with another solution with SingleTon class  Please tell me if any memory leakage is here  import time threading  class Singleton      instance   None   sleepTime   1   executeThread   False    def   init   self        if Singleton   instance    None          raise Exception  quot This class is a singleton  quot        else          Singleton   instance   self     staticmethod   def getInstance         if Singleton   instance    None          Singleton        return Singleton   instance     def startThread self        self executeThread   True      self threadNew   threading Thread target self foo target       self threadNew start        print  doing other things          def stopThread self        print  quot Killing Thread  quot        self executeThread   False      self threadNew join        print self threadNew      def foo self        print  quot Hello in  quot    str self sleepTime     quot  seconds quot       def foo target self        while self executeThread          self foo           print self threadNew          time sleep self sleepTime           if not self executeThread             break   sClass   Singleton   sClass startThread   time sleep 5  sClass getInstance   stopThread    sClass getInstance   sleepTime   2 sClass startThread

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In addition to the above great answers using Threads  in case you have to use your main thread or prefer an async approach - I wrapped a short class around aio timers Timer class  to enable repeating  import asyncio from aio timers import Timer  class RepeatingAsyncTimer        def   init   self  interval  cb   args    kwargs           self interval   interval         self cb   cb         self args   args         self kwargs   kwargs         self aio timer   None         self start timer            def start timer self           self aio timer   Timer delay self interval                                  callback self cb wrapper                                  callback args self args                                  callback kwargs self kwargs                                          def cb wrapper self   args    kwargs           self cb  args    kwargs          self start timer     from time import time def cb timer name       print timer name  time     print f clock starts at   time      timer 1   RepeatingAsyncTimer interval 5  cb cb  timer name  timer 1   timer 2   RepeatingAsyncTimer interval 10  cb cb  timer name  timer 2    clock starts at  1602438840 9690785 timer 1 1602438845 980087 timer 2 1602438850 9806316 timer 1 1602438850 9808934 timer 1 1602438855 9863033 timer 2 1602438860 9868324 timer 1 1602438860 9876585

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Improving a little on Hans Then s answer  we can just subclass the Timer function  The following becomes our entire  repeat timer  code  and it can be used as a drop-in replacement for threading Timer with all the same arguments   from threading import Timer  class RepeatTimer Timer       def run self           while not self finished wait self interval               self function  self args    self kwargs    Usage example   def dummyfn msg  foo        print msg   timer   RepeatTimer 1  dummyfn  timer start   time sleep 5  timer cancel     produces the following output   foo foo foo foo   and  timer   RepeatTimer 1  dummyfn  args   bar     timer start   time sleep 5  timer cancel     produces  bar bar bar bar

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This is an alternate implementation using function instead of class  Inspired by  Andrew Wilkins above   Because wait is more accurate than sleep   it takes function runtime into account     import threading  PING ON   threading Event    def ping      while not PING ON wait 1       print  my thread  s    str threading current thread   ident    t   threading Thread target ping  t start    sleep 5  PING ON set

[python] Python threading.timer - repeat function every 'n' seconds

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