[java] How do I make a delay in Java?

I am trying to do something in Java and I need something to wait / delay for an amount of seconds in a while loop.

while (true) {
    if (i == 3) {
        i = 0;
    }

    ceva[i].setSelected(true);

    // I need to wait here

    ceva[i].setSelected(false);

    // I need to wait here

    i++;
}

I want to build a step sequencer and I'm new to Java. Any suggestions?

Use Thread.sleep(1000);

1000 is the number of milliseconds that the program will pause.

try
{
    Thread.sleep(1000);
}
catch(InterruptedException ex)
{
    Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}

Use this:

public static void wait(int ms)
{
    try
    {
        Thread.sleep(ms);
    }
    catch(InterruptedException ex)
    {
        Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
    }
}

and, then you can call this method anywhere like:

wait(1000);

You need to use the Thread.sleep() call.

More info here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/sleep.html

I know this is a very old post but this may help someone: You can create a method, so whenever you need to pause you can type pause(1000) or any other millisecond value:

public static void pause(int ms) {
    try {
        Thread.sleep(ms);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        System.err.format("IOException: %s%n", e);
    }
}

This is inserted just above the public static void main(String[] args), inside the class. Then, to call on the method, type pause(ms) but replace ms with the number of milliseconds to pause. That way, you don't have to insert the entire try-catch statement whenever you want to pause.

Using TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(1); or Thread.sleep(1000); Is acceptable way to do it. In both cases you have to catch InterruptedExceptionwhich makes your code Bulky.There is an Open Source java library called MgntUtils (written by me) that provides utility that already deals with InterruptedException inside. So your code would just include one line:

TimeUtils.sleepFor(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

See the javadoc here. You can access library from Maven Central or from Github. The article explaining about the library could be found here

Use Thread.sleep(100);. The unit of time is milliseconds

For example:

public class SleepMessages {
    public static void main(String args[])
        throws InterruptedException {
        String importantInfo[] = {
            "Mares eat oats",
            "Does eat oats",
            "Little lambs eat ivy",
            "A kid will eat ivy too"
        };

        for (int i = 0;
             i < importantInfo.length;
             i++) {
            //Pause for 4 seconds
            Thread.sleep(4000);
            //Print a message
            System.out.println(importantInfo[i]);
        }
    }
}