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Passing a variable to timer_tick

Got a problem at the moment, I'm using a timer to do animations and I want to be able to decide where to start using Start and Stop integers as i'll show below.
private void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
AnimateKey(0,100);
}
private void AnimateKey(int Start, int Stop)
{
myTimer.Interval = 5;
myTimer.Tick += new EventHandler(myTimer_Tick);
myTimer.Enabled = true;
myTimer.Start();
}
private void myTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
lock (myTimer)
{
int StartingFrame = Start;
int StopFrame = Stop;
etc...etc..
}
}
Now my problem is that I want to pass the values 0 and 100 to the Timer Tick event but I have no idea on how to go about doing it.
How can I get the Integers 0 and 100 from the button click to the timer tick ?

Just use a lambda when defining the tick event handler to close over the parameters you need:
private void AnimateKey(int Start, int Stop)
{
myTimer.Interval = 5;
myTimer.Tick += (s, args) => myTimer_Tick(Start, Stop);
myTimer.Enabled = true;
myTimer.Start();
}
private void myTimer_Tick(int Start, int Stop)
{
//Do stuff
}
Also note that the Tick event of the Timer that you're using will be fired in the UI thread, so there is no need for a lock; the code is already synchronized.

use a class with all info:
public class TimerInfo
{
public int Start;
public int Stop;
}
store an instance in timer's Tag
myTimer.Tag = new TimerInfo { Start = 0, Stop = 100 };
inside the eventhandler you access this info
myTimer = (Timer)sender;
TimerInfo ti = (TimerInfo)myTimer.Tag;

Somewhat hard to understand what you mean, but let's give it a try.
If you ment you want to pass the integers start and stop to the function TimerTick, you probably dont understand the EventArgs parameter. EventArgs is ment to store the arguements which are relevant to your scenario - and the solution is simple.
class myTimerEventArgs:EventArgs // Declaring your own event arguements which you want to send
{
public int start{get;set;}
public int stop {get;set;}
/*Constructor, etc...*/
}
...
//Making the call inside another class:
myTimer_Tick(this,new myTimerEventArgs(0,100);
However, I could be misunderstanding you; If are talking about counting the ticks until it reaches 100 ticks (/intervals), the solution is a simple function added to the event, which would probably look like this:
int Count = 0;
...
private void Counter(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Count++;
}
...
private void AnimateKey(int Start, int Stop)
{
myTimer.Interval = 5;
myTimer.Tick += new EventHandler(myTimer_Tick);
myTimer.Tick += new EventHandler(Counter);
myTimer.Enabled = true;
myTimer.Start();
while(Count!=100);
myTimer.Stop();
}
Hope I helped, have a nice day :)

C# refreshing a chart every few seconds

I have a Windows Forms App written in C#. The idea is, that it draws a chart for 10 numbers after clicking a button. This works fine. I click the button, and I get a nice chart. However I also want to include a sort of "auto refresh" mode, where the chart is refreshed every few seconds. This would be enabled via Checkbox. Here's my code:
private void chartButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) //draw a chart after the button is clicked
{
Random rdn1 = new Random();
int value;
foreach (var series in ekran.Series) //clear previous values
{
series.Points.Clear();
}
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) //draw a chart from ten new values
{
value = rdn1.Next(0, 10); //for testing purpouses the value will be a random number a random number
ekran.Series["seria1"].Points.AddXY(i, value);
}
}
private void checkBox1_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
while(checkBox1.Checked) //click the chartButton every one second, when the checkbox is checked
{
//rysuj.PerformClick();
chartButton.PerformClick();
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
And now for my problem. When I check the Checkbox, I will not get a chart until it finishes every iteration of the while loop. Since it's an infinite loop, I will never get my chart. If I rewrite the code to make only five iterations when the Checkbox is checked, I only get the chart for the fifth one (and after five seconds, as to be expected).
So my question is: how can I force this to draw a chart every time the button is clicked via chartButton.PerformClick()? When I click the button manually, everything works fine, it's just when I try to do it automatically, I get my problem.
EDIT
First of all,thank you for the replies. However, I'm still experiencing the same problem when using a timer. This is how my code looks now:
namespace ChartTest
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
System.Windows.Forms.Timer timer = new System.Windows.Forms.Timer();
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
timer.Tick += new EventHandler(timer_Tick);
timer.Interval = 1000;
}
void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer.Enabled = false;
chartButton.PerformClick();
}
private void checkBox1_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
while (checkBox1.Checked)
{
timer.Enabled = true; // Enable the timer
timer.Start(); // Start the timer
}
}
private void chartButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) //draw a chart after the button is clicked
{
Random rdn1 = new Random();
int value;
ekran.Series.Clear();
var series2 = new System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Series
{
Name = "Series2",
Color = System.Drawing.Color.Green,
IsVisibleInLegend = false,
IsXValueIndexed = true,
ChartType = SeriesChartType.Line
};
this.ekran.Series.Add(series2);
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
value = rdn1.Next(0, 10);
series2.Points.AddXY(i, value);
}
}
}
}
Sorry for being a total noob, but I have no idea, what am I doing wrong this time.

This is exactly what a Timer is for. Have the checkbox start/stop or enable/disable the timer, and handle the Timer.Tick event to redraw your chart. In your case, the event handler could simply call chartButton.PerformClick(), or insert whatever code the PerformClick() does.
ETA: If the chart refresh is not instant, you will probably want to push it off to a separate thread. If it's instant, there's not really any need to deal with the threading though.

I would go the route of using a thread with combination of checkbox's checkChange() event. Essentially this will allow your application to keep running while the update code will execute periodically. The refresh is determined by the sleep time, not your manual click or any other value.. Example below on how I to do this:
Thread refreshThread = null;
private void checkBox1_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (refreshThread == null) //No thread running, assume it starts this way
{
refreshThread = new Thread(chartRefresh);
refreshThread.Start();
}
else //Thread is running, must terminate
{
refreshThread.Abort();
refreshThread = null;
}
}
private void chartRefresh()
{
while (true)
{
//code to refresh chart
Thread.Sleep(10000);
}
}

Stopwatch changing button text in c#

Basically, I've got multiple button in my Form, and I want for it show a Stopwatch in the button.Text when the button is pressed. (Button is modified to be a toggle button.) and to stop and reset the timmer when the button is toggled off. Simple enough it seemed but because I have multiple buttons that could be pressed in any order, and I don't know anything about threading, this seems to be much more difficult that I presumed.
My origional intent was to have a function that constantly runs every second and interates a interager only if the button is pressed using this code:
public void Jogger()//purpose is to step up time[0] every second only when a button is on.
{
while (true)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++)
{
if (btnstat[i])
time[i]++;
}
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
Problem is, I don't know threading so when I call the function, its stuck doing this and only this.
Either way, once this is called, all i do us call my update function that updates all the buttons including the button.Text which displays the time[0]; (array built around buttons)
Is their a better way of doing this that doesn't cause so much CPU use and/or simply works?
Thanks for all the help!
-John Ivey

Assuming you using checkbox with property Button = Appearence, in event handler for CheckedChanged:
private void CheckBoxCheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
CheckBox checkBox = (CheckBox) sender;
if (checkBox.Checked)
{
Timer timer = new Timer {Interval = 1000};
timer.Tick += Jogger;
timer.Start();
timer.Tag = new CheckboxCounter {CheckBox = checkBox, Time = 0};
checkBox.Tag = timer;
}
else
{
Timer timer = checkBox.Tag as Timer;
if (timer != null)
{
timer.Tag = null;
timer.Stop();
timer.Dispose();
checkBox.Tag = null;
}
}
}
Change your Jogger function:
private void Jogger(object a_sender, EventArgs a_eventArgs)
{
Timer timer = (Timer) a_sender;
CheckboxCounter data = (CheckboxCounter)timer.Tag;
data.Time++;
data.CheckBox.Text = data.Time.ToString();
}
You also need some simple class to store checkbox and current time:
class CheckboxCounter
{
public CheckBox CheckBox;
public int Time;
}
Then you can add any number of checkboxes and just set event CheckedChanged to CheckBoxCheckedChanged.

Try this out. After re-building or running, you should have the new "ButtonTimer" at the top of your ToolBox. Drop a couple on your Form, run it, and see what happens when you click them. Right click them to "Reset" them:
public class ButtonTimer : CheckBox
{
private System.Windows.Forms.Timer Tmr = new System.Windows.Forms.Timer();
private System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch SW = new System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch();
public ButtonTimer()
{
this.Tmr.Interval = 500;
this.Tmr.Tick += new EventHandler(tmr_Tick);
this.Appearance = System.Windows.Forms.Appearance.Button;
this.CheckedChanged += new EventHandler(ButtonTimer_CheckedChanged);
ContextMenuStrip cms = new ContextMenuStrip();
ToolStripItem tsi = cms.Items.Add("Reset");
tsi.Click += new EventHandler(tsi_Click);
this.ContextMenuStrip = cms;
}
protected override void OnLayout(LayoutEventArgs levent)
{
base.OnLayout(levent);
this.Text = TimeSpan.Zero.ToString(#"hh\:mm\:ss");
}
private void ButtonTimer_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (this.Checked)
{
this.SW.Start();
this.Tmr.Start();
}
else
{
this.SW.Stop();
this.Tmr.Stop();
}
}
private void tmr_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.UpdateTime();
}
private void UpdateTime()
{
this.Text = this.SW.Elapsed.ToString(#"hh\:mm\:ss");
}
private void tsi_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (this.SW.IsRunning)
{
SW.Restart();
}
else
{
SW.Reset();
}
this.UpdateTime();
}
}

Application.DoEvents() for simplicity put inside loop . . but it is advisable to start to lean threading . you will just learn how to start thread and how make cross thread safe call
Next simple will be to use backgroundworker . look this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.backgroundworker.aspx
ok here is thread solution also as you wanted . Tested too . as a stop variable i used Tag. But u can inherit button to make state button.it be more clear way . And below code will use one thread per button . So u should make it in one thread to make it better solution . You can modify this code to do all checkings inside one thread . For this you start thread once can make delegate for attaching dinamically count function for each button or you can pass buttons before . With one word there are more than one way to do it. Good luck
this.button1.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button_Click);
this.button2.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button_Click);
...and so on
private void button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Thread x= new Thread(new ParameterizedThreadStart(Jogger2));
x.Start(sender);
}
private void button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Button mybtn=sender as Button;
if((string)mybtn.Tag=="start"){
mybtn.Tag ="";
return;
}
mybtn.Tag = "start";
Thread x= new Thread(new ParameterizedThreadStart(Jogger2));
x.Start(sender);
}
private bool setResult(object obj,string text)
{
if (this.textBox1.InvokeRequired)
{
Func<Button,string, bool > d = new Func<Button,string,bool >(setResult);
return (bool)this.Invoke(d,obj,text);
}
else
{
Button btn=obj as Button;
if (btn != null)
{
btn.Text = text;
if ((string)btn.Tag !="start") return false;
}
return true;
}
}
private void Jogger2(object mybtn)
{
int ii = 0;
while (true)
{
Thread.Sleep(1000);
//replace with your code
ii += 1;
if (!setResult(mybtn, ii.ToString())) break;
}
}

Implement multiple timers in C#

I'm working on a windows forms app where I have several so called "services" that poll data from various services like Twitter, Facebook, Weather, Finance. Now each of my services has its individual polling interval setting so I was thinking I could implement a System.Windows.Forms.Timer for each of my services and set its Interval property accordingly so that each timer would fire an event at the preset interval that will cause the service to pull new data preferably async through a BackgroundWorker.
Is this the best way to do it? or will it slow down my app causing performance issues. Is there a better way of doing it?
Thanks!

You can do it with one Timer, just needs smarter approach to interval:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
int facebookInterval = 5; //5 sec
int twitterInterval = 7; //7 sec
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
Timer t = new Timer();
t.Interval = 1000; //1 sec
t.Tick += new EventHandler(t_Tick);
t.Start();
}
void t_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
facebookInterval--;
twitterInterval--;
if (facebookInterval == 0)
{
MessageBox.Show("Getting FB data");
facebookInterval = 5; //reset to base value
}
if (twitterInterval == 0)
{
MessageBox.Show("Getting Twitter data");
twitterInterval = 7; //reset to base value
}
}
}

you do not really need BackgroundWorker, as WebClient class has Async methods.
so you may simply have one WebClient object for each of your "service" and use code like this:
facebookClient = new WebClient();
facebookClient.DownloadStringCompleted += FacebookDownloadComplete;
twitterClient = new WebClient();
twitterClient.DownloadStringCompleted += TwitterDownloadComplete;
private void FacebookDownloadComplete(Object sender, DownloadStringCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (!e.Cancelled && e.Error == null)
{
string str = (string)e.Result;
DisplayFacebookContent(str);
}
}
private void OnFacebookTimer(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
if( facebookClient.IsBusy)
facebookClient.CancelAsync(); // long time should have passed, better cancel
facebookClient.DownloadStringAsync(facebookUri);
}

How do I subscribe to raised events and printing together?

I have been working on a program that has 3 classes of which 2 of the classes have timers that repeat at different intervals and once one "cycle" of the timer is done it raises an event with a string as return. The 3rd class subscribes to the events from the other two timer classes and prints them to screen. it works great!
But my issue is that it is printing them separately. Lets say that the first timer class runs and then raises "hello" every 2 minutes and the other class "dog" every second and every time an event is raised it prints the raised event to console. I would want it to instead print "hellodog" every second and store the value of the first timer(hello) in a private field or something so it still prints to screen even if the timer(the slower 2 minute timer) hasn't been fired. and when the 2 minute timer fires it updates the value to whatever the new one is and that new value get printed to screen until it fires again.
If it is confusing I will gladly clarify. its kind of hard to explain.
namespace Final
{
public class Output
{
public static void Main()
{
var timer1 = new FormWithTimer();
var timer2 = new FormWithTimer2();
timer1.NewStringAvailable += new EventHandler<BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent.StringEventArgs>(timer1_NewStringAvailable);
timer2.NewStringAvailable += new EventHandler<BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent.StringEventArgs>(timer2_NewStringAvailable);
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void timer1_NewStringAvailable(object sender, BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent.StringEventArgs e)
{
var theString = e.Value;
//To something with 'theString' that came from timer 1
Console.WriteLine(theString);
}
static void timer2_NewStringAvailable(object sender, BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent.StringEventArgs e)
{
var theString2 = e.Value;
//To something with 'theString2' that came from timer 2
Console.WriteLine(theString2);
}
}
public abstract class BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent
{
public class StringEventArgs : EventArgs
{
public StringEventArgs(string value)
{
Value = value;
}
public string Value { get; private set; }
}
//The event itself that people can subscribe to
public event EventHandler<StringEventArgs> NewStringAvailable;
protected void RaiseEvent(string value)
{
var e = NewStringAvailable;
if (e != null)
e(this, new StringEventArgs(value));
}
}
public partial class FormWithTimer : BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent
{
Timer timer = new Timer();
public FormWithTimer()
{
timer = new System.Timers.Timer(200000);
timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(timer_Tick); // Everytime timer ticks, timer_Tick will be called
timer.Interval = (200000); // Timer will tick evert 10 seconds
timer.Enabled = true; // Enable the timer
timer.Start(); // Start the timer
}
void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
...
RaiseEvent(gml.ToString());
}
}
public partial class FormWithTimer2 : BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent
{
Timer timer = new Timer();
public FormWithTimer2()
{
timer = new System.Timers.Timer(1000);
timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(timer_Tick2); // Everytime timer ticks, timer_Tick will be called
timer.Interval = (1000); // Timer will tick evert 10 seconds
timer.Enabled = true; // Enable the timer
timer.Start(); // Start the timer
}
void timer_Tick2(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
...
RaiseEvent(aida.ToString());
}
}
}

You can use the same event handler for both timers. And construct the output by identifying the senders. (Didn't test the code for syntax errors.)
private static string timer1Value = string.Empty;
private static string timer2Value = string.Empty;
private static FormWithTimer timer1;
private static FormWithTimer2 timer2;
public static void Main()
{
timer1 = new FormWithTimer();
timer2 = new FormWithTimer2();
timer1.NewStringAvailable += new EventHandler<BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent.StringEventArgs>(timer1_NewStringAvailable);
timer2.NewStringAvailable += new EventHandler<BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent.StringEventArgs>(timer1_NewStringAvailable);
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void timer1_NewStringAvailable(object sender, BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent.StringEventArgs e)
{
if (sender == timer1)
{
timer1Value = e.Value.ToString();
}
else if (sender == timer2)
{
timer2Value = e.Value.ToString();
}
if (timer1Value != String.Empty && timer2Value != String.Empty)
{
Console.WriteLine(timer1Value + timer2Value);
// Do the string concatenation as you want.
}

Correct me if I misunderstand the question, but it sounds like you want to coordinate your response to the two timer events (print "hellodog").
It seems to me that the easiest way to do this is to just use a single timer, and have the timer's event handler count the number of times the handler has been invoked to decide whether to take the once-per-second action, or also take the once-per-two-minutes action.
Since the slow timer is an exact multiple of your fast timer, you would set just one timer that triggers every second, and also do the 2-minute action every 120 invocations of the 1 second timer (120 seconds = 2 minutes).

I think I understand what you want and that is to synchronize the output of both timers. I am afraid there is no way to do it other than to slog through it. Set up a bunch of Boolean variables that track whether each event fired and whether the synchronized message was sent to the output.

This should do what you want.
public static void Main()
{
var timer1 = new FormWithTimer();
var timer2 = new FormWithTimer2();
var value1 = "";
var value2 = "";
Action writeValues = () => Console.WriteLine(value1 + value2);
timer1.NewStringAvailable += (s, e) =>
{
value1 = e.Value;
writeValues();
};
timer2.NewStringAvailable += (s, e) =>
{
value2 = e.Value;
writeValues();
};
Console.ReadLine();
}
Let me know if this is right. Cheers.

The second (quicker) timer should be the only one to print.
The first (slower) timer should only update a string which the second timer will use.
In the 'Output' class (you can put it before Main):
string string1;
and then:
static void timer1_NewStringAvailable(object sender, BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent.StringEventArgs e)
{
string1 = e.Value;
}
static void timer2_NewStringAvailable(object sender, BaseClassThatCanRaiseEvent.StringEventArgs e)
{
var theString2 = e.Value;
//To something with 'theString2' that came from timer 2
Console.WriteLine(string1 + theString2);
}