Execute a function every X seconds WITHOUT sleep

[jojo212]

Hey guys,

My program occasionally has to do a little bit of heavy lifting processing wise, and I'd like a function that says something to the effect of

Now 40% complete...
Now 83% complete...

etc.

I have the function written and it works, but it calls so fast that the screen just fills up with

Now 1%
Now 2%
Now 3%

etc.

What I would like is the function to only be called once per second. HOWEVER what I DON'T want to do is use the sleep() or a wait() function because that will stop the programming from running altogether. I want something more along the lines of...

bool onSecond() // returns if clock is on a second 

while(loading){
   if(onSecond())
        displayPercentageLoaded()
}

Do you see what I mean? Every answer I find about timing always has to do with pausing or sleeping, but that's not what I'm looking for.


Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Much thanks!

[Moschops]

Win32 provides timers for this sort of thing.

http://twigstechtips.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/c-setting-up-win32-timer.html

[Imadatobanisa]

Sorry, but, you may try :

int ms = 100; //milliseconds remaining
while(...)
{
Sleep(10); 
//Update window, message etc...
ms = ms - 10;
if (ms <= 0)//Time out
{
percent = percent + 1;
Display();
ms = 100;
}

Also you may try the another method : Create a calculation thread and do the process bar code, instead of sleeping the main thread. That's better.

Edit : If you want to use the function "settimer", specify and handle the message WM_TIMER

[jojo212]

Thanks for the ideas but I'm just going to scrap this feature. Doesn't seem like it's worth the trouble. Thanks anyway!

[freddie1]

Your original idea was a good one, and its not hard to do. You just need to use a seperate thread of excution for the processing. You can look at the CreateThread() Api function. If you don't try it you won't learn anything. I don't have time to post code now, but perhaps late tomorrow.

[jojo212]

If you don't try it you won't learn anything.

Very true, sir! And it does sound like a very good thing to know :)

This particular assignment is due in 2 hours, so I don't think I'm going to learn it before then, but you are definitely correct.