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This function allows you to trigger a function after a number of milliseconds have elapsed. You can call one of your own functions or a built-in function. For example, you could set a timer to spawn a player after a number of seconds have elapsed.

Note

The hidden global variable sourceTimer contains the currently executing timer userdata

Note

The hidden global variable source becomes nil inside a timer function. You need to declare it on the function arguments if you need to use it.

Important

The speed at which a client side timer runs can be completely unreliable if a client is maliciously modifying their operating system speed, timers could run much faster or slower.

Important

Writing the following code can cause performance issues. Use onClientPreRender instead. setTimer(theFunction, 0, 0)

OOP Syntax Help! I don't understand this!

• Constructor: Timer(...)

Syntax

timer setTimer ( function theFunction, int timeInterval, int timesToExecute, var arguments... )

Required Arguments

• theFunction: The function you wish the timer to call.
• timeInterval: MISSING_PARAM_DESC
• timesToExecute: MISSING_PARAM_DESC
• arguments...: MISSING_PARAM_DESC

Returns

• timer: value

Returns a timer pointer if the timer was set successfully, false if the arguments are invalid or the timer could not be set.

Code Examples

Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4

shared

This example will output some text after a small delay.

-- define function to be called
function delayedChat ( text )
  outputChatBox ( "Delayed text: " .. text )
end

-- set a timer so the function is called after 1 second
setTimer ( delayedChat, 1000, 1, "Hello, World!" )

shared

This example will nest a whole function within a timer. This is nice for things like setting variables without having to call a function outside of your code block.

function mainFunction()
        outputChatBox ("Instant text!")
  setTimer ( function()
    outputChatBox ( "5 second delay text!" )
  end, 5000, 1 )
end

mainFunction() --call function

shared

This example outputs some random text to the chat every 300000 milliseconds (5 minutes).

setTimer(function()
    outputChatBox("Text " .. math.random(1,4))
end, 300000, 0)

shared

This example should send a global message about the death of a player on a random time. I usedmath.roundin this example to give a nicer output.

function math.round(number, decimals, method) -- math.round, useful function taken from the wiki: https://wiki.multitheftauto.com/wiki/Math.round
    decimals = decimals or 0
    local factor = 10 ^ decimals
    if (method == "ceil" or method == "floor") then return math[method](number * factor) / factor
    else return tonumber(("%."..decimals.."f"):format(number)) end
end

function onWasted()
  local delay = math.random(500, 5000) -- 0.5s to 5s of delay
  setTimer(function(thePlayer) -- Starts the Timer
    local whoDied = "Someone" -- In case the name can't be read, Someone will appear
    if isElement(thePlayer) then -- This checks if thePlayer's element still exists (which means thePlayer hasnt disconnected yet)
      whoDied = getPlayerName(thePlayer) -- Changes Someone to thePlayer's name
    end
    outputChatBox(whoDied.." #FFFFFFhas #FF0000died #FFFFFF"..math.round(delay/1000, 1).." seconds ago.", root, 255, 175, 0, true) -- This will output to everyone on the server that thePlayer (or Someone) died X seconds ago.
  end
  ,delay, 1, source) -- The source at the end is an argument for the function we made before, you can't use the source directly because it won't be readed
end
addEventHandler("onPlayerWasted", root, onWasted) -- Executed every time someone dies

See Also

Utility Functions

• addDebugHook
• bitAnd
• bitArShift
• bitExtract
• bitLRotate
• bitLShift
• bitNot
• bitOr
• bitReplace
• bitRRotate
• bitRShift
• bitTest
• bitXor
• createTrayNotification
• debugSleep
• decodeString
• deref
• downloadFile
• encodeString
• fromJSON
• generateKeyPair
• getColorFromString
• getDevelopmentMode
• getDistanceBetweenPoints2D
• getDistanceBetweenPoints3D
• getEasingValue
• getFPSLimit
• getKeyboardLayout
• getLocalization
• getNetworkStats
• getNetworkUsageData
• getPerformanceStats
• getProcessMemoryStats
• getRealTime
• getServerIp
• getTickCount
• getTimerDetails
• getTimers
• gettok
• getUserdataType
• getVersion
• hash
• inspect
• interpolateBetween
• iprint
• isOOPEnabled
• isShowCollisionsEnabled
• isShowSoundEnabled
• isTimer
• isTimerPaused
• isTransferBoxAlwaysVisible
• isTransferBoxVisible
• isTrayNotificationEnabled
• killTimer
• md5
• passwordHash
• passwordVerify
• pregFind
• pregMatch
• pregReplace
• ref
• removeDebugHook
• resetTimer
• setClipboard
• setDevelopmentMode
• setFPSLimit
• setTimer
• setTimerPaused
• setTransferBoxVisible
• setWindowFlashing
• sha256
• showCol
• showSound
• split
• teaDecode
• teaEncode
• tocolor
• toJSON
• utfChar
• utfCode
• utfLen
• utfSeek
• utfSub

Reference

• Scripting Functions