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Timer in C# to start an .exe (only execute if the time is 8am or later) [duplicate]

I've searched on SO and found answers about Quartz.net. But it seems to be too big for my project. I want an equivalent solution, but simpler and (at best) in-code (no external library required). How can I call a method daily, at a specific time?
I need to add some information about this:
the simplest (and ugly) way to do this, is check the time every second/minute and call the method, at right time
I want a more-effective way to do this, no need to check the time constantly, and I have control about whether the job is done a not. If the method fails (because of any problems), the program should know to write to log/send a email. That's why I need to call a method, not schedule a job.
I found this solution Call a method at fixed time in Java in Java. Is there a similar way in C#?
EDIT: I've done this. I added a parameter into void Main(), and created a bat (scheduled by Windows Task Scheduler) to run the program with this parameter. The program runs, does the job, and then exits. If a job fails, it's capable of writing log and sending email. This approach fits my requirements well :)

Create a console app that does what you're looking for
Use the Windows "Scheduled Tasks" functionality to have that console app executed at the time you need it to run
That's really all you need!
Update: if you want to do this inside your app, you have several options:
in a Windows Forms app, you could tap into the Application.Idle event and check to see whether you've reached the time in the day to call your method. This method is only called when your app isn't busy with other stuff. A quick check to see if your target time has been reached shouldn't put too much stress on your app, I think...
in a ASP.NET web app, there are methods to "simulate" sending out scheduled events - check out this CodeProject article
and of course, you can also just simply "roll your own" in any .NET app - check out this CodeProject article for a sample implementation
Update #2: if you want to check every 60 minutes, you could create a timer that wakes up every 60 minutes and if the time is up, it calls the method.
Something like this:
using System.Timers;
const double interval60Minutes = 60 * 60 * 1000; // milliseconds to one hour
Timer checkForTime = new Timer(interval60Minutes);
checkForTime.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(checkForTime_Elapsed);
checkForTime.Enabled = true;
and then in your event handler:
void checkForTime_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
if (timeIsReady())
{
SendEmail();
}
}

I created a simple scheduler that is easy to use and you do not need to use external library. TaskScheduler is a singleton that keeps references on the timers so timers will not be garbage collected, it can schedule multiple tasks. You can set the first run (hour and minute), if at the time of scheduling this time is over scheduling start on the next day this at that time. But it is easy to customize the code.
Scheduling a new task is so simple. Example: At 11:52 the first task is for every 15 secunds, the second example is for every 5 secunds. For daily execution set 24 to the 3 parameter.
TaskScheduler.Instance.ScheduleTask(11, 52, 0.00417,
() =>
{
Debug.WriteLine("task1: " + DateTime.Now);
//here write the code that you want to schedule
});
TaskScheduler.Instance.ScheduleTask(11, 52, 0.00139,
() =>
{
Debug.WriteLine("task2: " + DateTime.Now);
//here write the code that you want to schedule
});
My debug window:
task2: 07.06.2017 11:52:00
task1: 07.06.2017 11:52:00
task2: 07.06.2017 11:52:05
task2: 07.06.2017 11:52:10
task1: 07.06.2017 11:52:15
task2: 07.06.2017 11:52:15
task2: 07.06.2017 11:52:20
task2: 07.06.2017 11:52:25
...
Just add this class to your project:
public class TaskScheduler
{
private static TaskScheduler _instance;
private List<Timer> timers = new List<Timer>();
private TaskScheduler() { }
public static TaskScheduler Instance => _instance ?? (_instance = new TaskScheduler());
public void ScheduleTask(int hour, int min, double intervalInHour, Action task)
{
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime firstRun = new DateTime(now.Year, now.Month, now.Day, hour, min, 0, 0);
if (now > firstRun)
{
firstRun = firstRun.AddDays(1);
}
TimeSpan timeToGo = firstRun - now;
if (timeToGo <= TimeSpan.Zero)
{
timeToGo = TimeSpan.Zero;
}
var timer = new Timer(x =>
{
task.Invoke();
}, null, timeToGo, TimeSpan.FromHours(intervalInHour));
timers.Add(timer);
}
}

Whenever I build applications that require such functionality, I always use the Windows Task Scheduler through a simple .NET library that I found.
Please see my answer to a similar question for some sample code and more explanation.

As others have said you can use a console app to run when scheduled. What others haven't said is that you can this app trigger a cross process EventWaitHandle which you are waiting on in your main application.
Console App:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
EventWaitHandle handle =
new EventWaitHandle(true, EventResetMode.ManualReset, "GoodMutexName");
handle.Set();
}
}
Main App:
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Background thread, will die with application
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem((dumby) => EmailWait());
}
private void EmailWait()
{
EventWaitHandle handle =
new EventWaitHandle(false, EventResetMode.ManualReset, "GoodMutexName");
while (true)
{
handle.WaitOne();
SendEmail();
handle.Reset();
}
}

Here's a way to do this using TPL. No need to create/dispose of a timer, etc:
void ScheduleSomething()
{
var runAt = DateTime.Today + TimeSpan.FromHours(16);
if (runAt <= DateTime.Now)
{
DoSomething();
}
else
{
var delay = runAt - DateTime.Now;
System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Delay(delay).ContinueWith(_ => DoSomething());
}
}
void DoSomething()
{
// do somethig
}

The best method that I know of and probably the simplest is to use the Windows Task Scheduler to execute your code at a specific time of day or have you application run permanently and check for a particular time of day or write a windows service that does the same.

I know this is old but how about this:
Build a timer to fire at startup that calculates time to next run time. At the first call of the runtime, cancel the first timer and start a new daily timer. change daily to hourly or whatever you want the periodicity to be.

This little program should be the solution ;-)
I hope this helps everyone.
using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace DailyWorker
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var cancellationSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
var utils = new Utils();
var task = Task.Run(
() => utils.DailyWorker(12, 30, 00, () => DoWork(cancellationSource.Token), cancellationSource.Token));
Console.WriteLine("Hit [return] to close!");
Console.ReadLine();
cancellationSource.Cancel();
task.Wait();
}
private static void DoWork(CancellationToken token)
{
while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
Console.Write(DateTime.Now.ToString("G"));
Console.CursorLeft = 0;
Task.Delay(1000).Wait();
}
}
}
public class Utils
{
public void DailyWorker(int hour, int min, int sec, Action someWork, CancellationToken token)
{
while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
var dateTimeNow = DateTime.Now;
var scanDateTime = new DateTime(
dateTimeNow.Year,
dateTimeNow.Month,
dateTimeNow.Day,
hour, // <-- Hour when the method should be started.
min, // <-- Minutes when the method should be started.
sec); // <-- Seconds when the method should be started.
TimeSpan ts;
if (scanDateTime > dateTimeNow)
{
ts = scanDateTime - dateTimeNow;
}
else
{
scanDateTime = scanDateTime.AddDays(1);
ts = scanDateTime - dateTimeNow;
}
try
{
Task.Delay(ts).Wait(token);
}
catch (OperationCanceledException)
{
break;
}
// Method to start
someWork();
}
}
}
}

I just recently wrote a c# app that had to restart daily. I realize this question is old but I don't think it hurts to add another possible solution. This is how I handled daily restarts at a specified time.
public void RestartApp()
{
AppRestart = AppRestart.AddHours(5);
AppRestart = AppRestart.AddMinutes(30);
DateTime current = DateTime.Now;
if (current > AppRestart) { AppRestart = AppRestart.AddDays(1); }
TimeSpan UntilRestart = AppRestart - current;
int MSUntilRestart = Convert.ToInt32(UntilRestart.TotalMilliseconds);
tmrRestart.Interval = MSUntilRestart;
tmrRestart.Elapsed += tmrRestart_Elapsed;
tmrRestart.Start();
}
To ensure your timer is kept in scope I recommend creating it outside of the method using System.Timers.Timer tmrRestart = new System.Timers.Timer() method. Put the method RestartApp() in your form load event. When the application launches it will set the values for AppRestart if current is greater than the restart time we add 1 day to AppRestart to ensure the restart happens on time and that we don't get an exception for putting a negative value into the timer. In the tmrRestart_Elapsed event run whatever code you need ran at that specific time. If your application restarts on it's own you don't necessarily have to stop the timer but it doesn't hurt either, If the application does not restart simply call the RestartApp() method again and you will be good to go.

How about a 3 liner?
DateTime startTime = DateTime.Today.AddDays(1).AddHours(8).AddMinutes(30); // Today starts at midnight, so add the number of days, hours and minutes until the desired start time, which in this case is the next day at 8:30 a.m.
TimeSpan waitFor = startTime - DateTime.Now; // Calcuate how long it is until the start time
await Task.Delay(waitFor); // Wait until the start time

If you want an executable to run, use Windows Scheduled Tasks. I'm going to assume (perhaps erroneously) that you want a method to run in your current program.
Why not just have a thread running continuously storing the last date that the method was called?
Have it wake up every minute (for example) and, if the current time is greater than the specified time and the last date stored is not the current date, call the method then update the date.

It may just be me but it seemed like most of these answers were not complete or would not work correctly. I made something very quick and dirty. That being said not sure how good of an idea it is to do it this way, but it works perfectly every time.
while (true)
{
if(DateTime.Now.ToString("HH:mm") == "22:00")
{
//do something here
//ExecuteFunctionTask();
//Make sure it doesn't execute twice by pausing 61 seconds. So that the time is past 2200 to 2201
Thread.Sleep(61000);
}
Thread.Sleep(10000);
}

I found this very useful:
using System;
using System.Timers;
namespace ScheduleTimer
{
class Program
{
static Timer timer;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
schedule_Timer();
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void schedule_Timer()
{
Console.WriteLine("### Timer Started ###");
DateTime nowTime = DateTime.Now;
DateTime scheduledTime = new DateTime(nowTime.Year, nowTime.Month, nowTime.Day, 8, 42, 0, 0); //Specify your scheduled time HH,MM,SS [8am and 42 minutes]
if (nowTime > scheduledTime)
{
scheduledTime = scheduledTime.AddDays(1);
}
double tickTime = (double)(scheduledTime - DateTime.Now).TotalMilliseconds;
timer = new Timer(tickTime);
timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(timer_Elapsed);
timer.Start();
}
static void timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
Console.WriteLine("### Timer Stopped ### \n");
timer.Stop();
Console.WriteLine("### Scheduled Task Started ### \n\n");
Console.WriteLine("Hello World!!! - Performing scheduled task\n");
Console.WriteLine("### Task Finished ### \n\n");
schedule_Timer();
}
}
}

Try to use Windows Task Scheduler. Create an exe which is not prompting for any user inputs.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/taskschd/task-scheduler-start-page

Rather than setting a time to run every second of every 60 minutes you can calculate the time remaining and set the timer to half (or some other fraction) of this. This way your not checking the time as much but also maintianing a degree of accurcy as the timer interval reduces the closer you get to your target time.
For example if you wanted to do something 60 minutes from now the timers intervals would be aproximatly:
30:00:00, 15:00:00, 07:30:00, 03:45:00, ... , 00:00:01, RUN!
I use the code below to automatically restart a service once a day. I use a thread becuase I have found timers to be unreliable over long periods, while this is more costly in this example it is the only one created for this purpose so this dosn't matter.
(Converted from VB.NET)
autoRestartThread = new System.Threading.Thread(autoRestartThreadRun);
autoRestartThread.Start();
...
private void autoRestartThreadRun()
{
try {
DateTime nextRestart = DateAndTime.Today.Add(CurrentSettings.AutoRestartTime);
if (nextRestart < DateAndTime.Now) {
nextRestart = nextRestart.AddDays(1);
}
while (true) {
if (nextRestart < DateAndTime.Now) {
LogInfo("Auto Restarting Service");
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
p.StartInfo.Arguments = string.Format("/C net stop {0} && net start {0}", "\"My Service Name\"");
p.StartInfo.LoadUserProfile = false;
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
p.Start();
} else {
dynamic sleepMs = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Max(1000, nextRestart.Subtract(DateAndTime.Now).TotalMilliseconds / 2));
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(sleepMs);
}
}
} catch (ThreadAbortException taex) {
} catch (Exception ex) {
LogError(ex);
}
}
Note I have set a mininum interval of 1000 ms, this could be increaded, reduced or removed depending upon the accurcy you require.
Remember to also stop your thread/timer when your application closes.

I have a simple approach to this. This creates a 1 minute delay before the action happens. You could add seconds as well to make the Thread.Sleep(); shorter.
private void DoSomething(int aHour, int aMinute)
{
bool running = true;
while (running)
{
Thread.Sleep(1);
if (DateTime.Now.Hour == aHour && DateTime.Now.Minute == aMinute)
{
Thread.Sleep(60 * 1000); //Wait a minute to make the if-statement false
//Do Stuff
}
}
}

24 hours times
var DailyTime = "16:59:00";
var timeParts = DailyTime.Split(new char[1] { ':' });
var dateNow = DateTime.Now;
var date = new DateTime(dateNow.Year, dateNow.Month, dateNow.Day,
int.Parse(timeParts[0]), int.Parse(timeParts[1]), int.Parse(timeParts[2]));
TimeSpan ts;
if (date > dateNow)
ts = date - dateNow;
else
{
date = date.AddDays(1);
ts = date - dateNow;
}
//waits certan time and run the code
Task.Delay(ts).ContinueWith((x) => OnTimer());
public void OnTimer()
{
ViewBag.ErrorMessage = "EROOROOROROOROR";
}

A simple example for one task:
using System;
using System.Timers;
namespace ConsoleApp
{
internal class Scheduler
{
private static readonly DateTime scheduledTime =
new DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month, DateTime.Now.Day, 10, 0, 0);
private static DateTime dateTimeLastRunTask;
internal static void CheckScheduledTask()
{
if (dateTimeLastRunTask.Date < DateTime.Today && scheduledTime.TimeOfDay < DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay)
{
Console.WriteLine("Time to run task");
dateTimeLastRunTask = DateTime.Now;
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("not yet time");
}
}
}
internal class Program
{
private static Timer timer;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
timer = new Timer(5000);
timer.Elapsed += OnTimer;
timer.Start();
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static void OnTimer(object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
Scheduler.CheckScheduledTask();
}
}
}

Solution with System.Threading.Timer:
private void nameOfMethod()
{
//do something
}
/// <summary>
/// run method at 22:00 every day
/// </summary>
private void runMethodEveryDay()
{
var runAt = DateTime.Today + TimeSpan.FromHours(22);
if(runAt.Hour>=22)
runAt = runAt.AddDays(1.00d); //if aplication is started after 22:00
var dueTime = runAt - DateTime.Now; //time before first run ;
long broj3 = (long)dueTime.TotalMilliseconds;
TimeSpan ts2 = new TimeSpan(24, 0, 1);//period of repeating method
long broj4 = (long)ts2.TotalMilliseconds;
timer2 = new System.Threading.Timer(_ => nameOfMethod(), null, broj3, broj4);
}

How would I implement a DateTime.UtcNow that factors-in debugger pauses?

Consider:
public static void Main()
{
DateTime now = DateTime.UtcNow;
String x = Console.ReadLine(); // <-- breakpoint on this line
DateTime then = DateTime.UtcNow;
}
If I run this program in a debugger with a breakpoint on the Console.ReadLine() call and let the debugger pause the program for 30 seconds before manually resuming, then the then value would be now + 30s. This may affect debugging timing-related bugs that use of the debugger might not detect because the time the program was paused is still added to DateTime.Utc because it represents wall-clock time.
I'm after a way to get the value of DateTime.UtcNow as if the program wasn't paused for those 30 seconds, that way I could abstract-away DateTime.UtcNow. For example, if System.Diagnostics.Debugger had this functionality:
using System.Diagnostics;
private static DateTime _lastPaused = DateTime.UtcNow;
private static TimeSpan _pauseAdjustment = TimeSpan.Zero;
public static void Main()
{
Debugger.OnPause => { _lastPaused = DateTime.UtcNow; };
Debugger.OnResume => { _pauseAdjustment += DateTime.UtcNow - _lastPaused; };
DateTime now = GetDebuggerUtcNow();
String x = Console.ReadLine(); // <-- breakpoint on this line
DateTime then = GetDebuggerUtcNow();
}
private static DateTime GetDebuggerUtcNow()
{
return DateTime.UtcNow - _pauseAdjustment;
}
This isn't the same thing as getting "cpu time" because this value does not necessarily have a relation to the number of CPU cycles or instructions it took to run, for example, time spent waiting for an asynchronous operation to complete.
But of course, Debugger.OnPause and Debugger.OnResume don't exist - so is there another approach?

Execute action every x milliseconds in while loop [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How do you add a timer to a C# console application
(12 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I have a while loop that runs for a long number of times. I have some writelines in there that serve as debug statements. I use a verbosity flag to determine when I want to see those statements written to the console. Is there a way I can also specify to output every x milliseconds , instead of all the time.
while
{
//logic here
if(verboseMode)
Console.Writeline("some status message")
}
With the way the code is right now, the writeline executes all the time when verboseMode is set to true. What id like to do is output the line if verboseMode is set to true and the last time I output something it was x milliseconds ago

You can use a Timer or just keep track of when you last wrote output. The Timer is probably preferable because your main functionality won't block it from running whereas the other will.
I used random just to simulate the fact that the while loop won't always run in the same amount of time to demonstrate the difference between the approaches.
var r = new Random();
var t = new System.Timers.Timer() { Interval = 1500 };
t.Elapsed += (s, e) =>
Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay);
t.Start();
while (true)
{
Thread.Sleep(r.Next(500, 1000));
Console.WriteLine("doing stuff");
}
var r = new Random();
var prev = DateTime.Now;
var interval = 1500;
while (true)
{
Thread.Sleep(r.Next(500, 1000));
Console.WriteLine("doing stuff");
var now = DateTime.Now;
if (prev.AddMilliseconds(interval) >= now)
{
prev = DateTime.Now;
Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay);
}
}

What you ask for is rate limiting. I wrote this code originally for Multithreading, but it should get you the idea:
integer interval = 20;
DateTime dueTime = DateTime.Now.AddMillisconds(interval);
while(true){
if(DateTime.Now >= dueTime){
//insert code here
//Update next dueTime
dueTime = DateTime.Now.AddMillisconds(interval);
}
else{
//Just yield to not tax out the CPU
Thread.Sleep(1);
}
}
Note that DateTime is not nearly as accurate as the type is precise. Often the smalest difference tracked is 16 ms or so. But then again, 16 ms would get you around 60 changes per seconds, wich is propably to top adivseable writing/updating speed anyway.

If you don't care much about precision you can get away with running the while loop on a different thread using Task.Run:
var source = new CancellationTokenSource();
var task = Task.Run(() =>
{
while (!source.Token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
DoSomething();
await Task.Delay(500, source.Token);
}
});
// If you want to cancel the loop
source.Cancel();
task.Wait(); // or 'await task;' if you're in an async method

Is it a good idea to use longtime Thread.Sleep?

I have a job list. Each job has its own run time. They need to run when it comes time. I think two different ways.
public class Job
{
public int JobPeriod {get;set;} // for example as hour: daily = 24, weekly = 7 * 24, monthly = 30 * 24
public DateTime RunTime {get;set}
}
First Way :
I start a new main thread. This thread checks jobs at certain time interval (5 sec, 10 sec etc.). When a job's run time has come, the main thread will start and finish the job. The main thread which continually run in this way.
while (true)
{
lock (Locker)
{
// checks job list.
var jobs = foo.GetIncomingTimeJobs();
foreach (var job in jobs)
{
ParameterizedThreadStart ts = RunJob;
var th = new Thread(ts);
th.Start(job);
}
Thread.Sleep(10000);
}
}
public void RunJob(Job job)
{
// do somethings
}
Second Way :
When application is started, I create a new thread for each job in the job list. All of these created threads will start. When Job's thread is started, job's thread checks the job's run time.
For example :
var jobs = foo.GetAllJobs();
foreach (var job in jobs)
{
ParameterizedThreadStart ts = RunJob;
var th = new Thread(ts);
th.Start(job);
}
public void RunJob(Job job)
{
while (true)
{
lock (Locker)
{
// do somethings
var period = job.JobPeriod * 60 * 1000;
Thread.Sleep(period);
}
}
}
If there are ten jobs , there will be ten threads. And These ten threads will never end. will sleep, will continue, will sleep, will continue ...
Is it normal for threads to sleep such a long time ? Which way should I use ? Or Is there another way of doing such a thing?

Both approaches are in most cases incorrect. Usual solution for this kind of problems is using System.Threading.Timer. Sample code for your case can look like that:
private void CheckJobs(object state)
{
lock (Locker)
{
// checks job list.
var jobs = foo.GetIncomingTimeJobs();
foreach (var job in jobs)
{
var thread = new Thread(foo);
thread.Start();
}
}
}
private void StartProcessing()
{
var timer = new System.Threading.Timer(CheckJobs, null, 0, 10000);
}
When you call StartProcessing() function, the timer will be initialized and jobs list will be checked every 10 seconds.
If you go with Thread.Sleep() your application will become very unresponsive.

Implement c# timeout

Is it bad practice to use such while loop?
Maybe it is better to use Stopwatch, or maybe this solution has some pitfalls?
public void DoWork()
{
//do some preparation
DateTime startTime = DateTime.Now;
int rowsCount = 0;
int finalCount = getFinalCount();
do
{
Thread.Sleep(1000);
rowsCount = getRowsCount(); // gets rows count from database, rows are added by external app.
} while (rowsCount < finalCount && DateTime.Now - startTime < TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10));
}
I saw this article Implement C# Generic Timeout,
but it is too complex to use in simple scenarios - you need to think about sync of threads, is it proper to abort them or not and so on.

As I understand it, you want your method to do some work until it's done or until some period of time has elapsed? I would use a Stopwatch for that, and check the elapsed time in a loop:
void DoWork()
{
// we'll stop after 10 minutes
TimeSpan maxDuration = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10);
Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
DoneWithWork = false;
while (sw.Elapsed < maxDuration && !DoneWithWork)
{
// do some work
// if all the work is completed, set DoneWithWork to True
}
// Either we finished the work or we ran out of time.
}

It is better to use the System.Timers.Timer class.