ActionScript 3.0 Timer Class

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

The Flash AS3 Timer class lets you create Timer objects, one common usage of which would be to create counters for your Flash application - like an AS3 countdown timer, a time limit counter for a game or some sort of timer delay. In this tutorial, we'll learn the basics of working with the Timer ActionScript 3 class.

NOTE: For those of you coming from AS2 and have been using the setInterval() function - there is also an AS3 setInterval() function, but the AS3 Timer class is a good alternative to using setInterval().

A Timer object has the ability to count at a specific interval, which can be set using what is called the delay. The delay is specified in milliseconds. For example, if there is a delay of 1000 milliseconds, then the Timer object will count at 1 second intervals. If there is a delay of 5000 milliseconds, then the Timer counts every 5 seconds. You can specify a delay as short as 20 milliseconds, but anything lower than that is not recommended and may cause problems.

So now let's go ahead and create a new AS3 Timer object. The Timer ActionScript 3 constructor accepts 2 parameters. The first parameter is for the delay. The second parameter is for the repeatCount. The repeatCount specifies the number of repetitions the Timer will make. If you don't specify a repeatCount or if you specify zero, the timer repeats indefinitely. If you specify a positive nonzero value, then the timer runs at that specified number of times and then stops. So for example, if you specify a repeatCount of 5, then the Timer will count 5 times and then stop. The delay parameter is required, while the repeatCount is optional.

var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(1000);

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