ActionScript 3.0 Timer Class -II

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AS3 Timer - ActionScript 3 Tutorial | Introduction to the Flash ActionScript 3.0 Timer Class

This creates a new Timer object named myTimer. A delay of one second has been specified.

NOTE: The delay is not always 100% accurate. It will usually be off by a few milliseconds, but in many cases, it's barely noticeable.

The Timer will not start automatically. Use the start() method of the Timer class in order to tell the Timer object to start.

var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(1000);
myTimer.start();

If you test your movie now, the Flash movie will launch, but you won't see anything happen. In order to tell Flash to respond and do something, then we'll need to create AS3 Timer event handlers so that our Flash movie will know what to do when certain Timer associated events get dispatched.

Let's first take a look at the TimerEvent.TIMER event. This event gets dispatched every time the Timer object makes a count. So for example, if you have a Timer object that has a 1 second delay, then TimerEvent.TIMERwill get dispatched every 1 second. This event is useful if you'd like your Flash movie to do something repeatedly at a constant interval. So let's go ahead and create a TimerEvent.TIMER event handler that will tell Flash to display the word hello in the output window every time the Timer makes a count.

var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(1000);
myTimer.start();

myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, sayHello);

function sayHello(e:TimerEvent):void {
     trace("hello");
}

So now, if you test the movie, you will see the word hello come out in the output window every 1 second.

If you wish to keep track of how many times the Timer has been counting, then you can use the currentCountproperty of the Timer class. Each time the Timer makes a count, the currentCount property increases by 1. Let's add a trace statement that's going to output the Timer object's currentCount value every time the Timer makes a count.

var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(1000);
myTimer.start();

myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER,  sayHello);

function sayHello(e:TimerEvent):void 
{
     trace("hello");
     trace("Current Count: " + myTimer.currentCount);
}

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