Java Timer and TimerTask Example

Java Timer and TimerTask Example 

In this tutorial we are going to see how you can use Timer and TimerTask classes of the java.util package in order to schedule the execution of a certain process.

The Timer class uses several flexible methods to make it possible to to schedule a task to be executed at a specific time, for once or for several times with intervals between executions.

To create your own schedulable processes, you have to create your own class the extends TimerTask class. TimerTask implements Runnable interface, so you have to override the run() method.
Let’s see the code :

package com.javanotes2all.java.date;

import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Timer;
import java.util.TimerTask;

public class TimerTaskExample extends TimerTask {

 @Override
 public void run() {
  System.out.println("Start time:" + new Date());
  doSomeWork();
  System.out.println("End time:" + new Date());
 }

 // simulate a time consuming task
 private void doSomeWork() {
  try {

   Thread.sleep(10000);

  } catch (InterruptedException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
  }
 }

 public static void main(String args[]) {

  TimerTask timerTask = new TimerTaskExample();
  // running timer task as daemon thread
  Timer timer = new Timer(true);
  timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(timerTask, 0, 10 * 1000);
  System.out.println("TimerTask begins! :" + new Date());
  // cancel after sometime
  try {
   Thread.sleep(20000);
  } catch (InterruptedException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
  }
  timer.cancel();
  System.out.println("TimerTask cancelled! :" + new Date());
  try {
   Thread.sleep(30000);
  } catch (InterruptedException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
  }
 }

}

OUTPUT:

Start time:Fri Feb 08 14:13:58 IST 2013
TimerTask begins! :Fri Feb 08 14:13:58 IST 2013
End time:Fri Feb 08 14:14:09 IST 2013
Start time:Fri Feb 08 14:14:09 IST 2013
End time:Fri Feb 08 14:14:19 IST 2013
Start time:Fri Feb 08 14:14:19 IST 2013
TimerTask cancelled! :Fri Feb 08 14:14:19 IST 2013
End time:Fri Feb 08 14:14:29 IST 2013