How can i use timer?

[alfaifi]

Hi

If i want to repeat an action every X seconds..how can i do that?

and another question: how can i use the real time to be printed in an output file?

Thanks

[smUX]

First things first: how to use the timer

Timers work in milliseconds...once you have the timer on your form (let's assume you call it timer1) you call it using "timer1.interval = 6000"...this sets it to "fire" after 6 seconds. Now double-click the timer control on your form and put code in for what you want to happen every 6 seconds. If at any time you need to stop the timer, put "timer1.enabled = false" in your code

Second one is a simple pre-defined variable called "time"...if you put "label1 = time" in your code and had label1 on your form, it would have the current time put into it. It's as simple as that to do the same to a textbox or an output to file or printer

[gavio]

Try this (state on how many seconds you would like to write date and time to file):

Option Explicit
    Dim interval As Integer
    Dim WithEvents myTimer As Timer
    
Private Sub Form_Load()
    Set myTimer = Me.Controls.Add("VB.Timer", "myTimer")
    
        Do Until IsNumeric(interval) = True And interval > 0
            interval = InputBox("State your inteval (in s):", "Interval", "10")
            interval = interval * 1000 'multiply to get ms
        Loop
        
            myTimer.interval = interval
End Sub
 
Private Sub myTimer_timer()
    Dim ff As Integer
    
        ff = FreeFile
        
            Open "c:\test.txt" For Output As #ff
                Print #ff, Date & " - " & Time 'writing to file
            Close #ff
End Sub

[alfaifi]

BIG THANKS smUX

your post was usefull and was rated

by the way, do you know how can i create a file and write some data into it..

[smUX]

creating a file is simple...what usually isn't simple is when you get into different features, or what you can do...here's a quick and dirty way to write an array to a file

fre = FreeFile 'freefile returns the next available free number
Open "c:\data.txt" For Output As #fre
'output is usually the method you would use, or input for
'getting it back in...there's others, but ignore those for now
For b = 1 To 100
Print #fre, Array(b)
'print #fre is printing to the file.  We use multiple numbers
'because you can theoretically print(write) to 100+ files at
'a time...some people read in a file with one and write the
'same with another and make changes to the data as it goes
'through this process :-)
Next b
Close fre
'Got to close the file after writing or it'll never be readable

The green lines are comments and are just there to give you extra information. You don't *have* to use an array or a loop, you can put 1 "print #fre," per variable you wish to write, but most people tend to store the data in an array and write it in one big bunch for ease of use

[alfaifi]

Thank you very much gavio and smUX

but how can i write in the file witout losing the information written in it?

[smUX]

Do you mean an already saved file? If so, change "output" to "append" and it'll append the data to the end of the file

[gavio]

Open it, read it, add something and write it. For example:

Dim iFF As Integer
Dim sFile As String
Dim sContents As String
 
    iFF=FreeFile
    sFile="c:\test.txt"
 
                'read it
        Open sFile For Input As #iFF
            sContents=Input(LOF(iFF),iFF)
        Close #iFF
 
                'write what was before and add something new
        Open sFile For Output As #iFF
                        Print #iFF, sContents
            Print #iFF, "something new"
        Close #iFF

edit: or like smuX suggested

[bushmobile]

here's another way of writing the array at once:

Open "C:\data.txt" For Output As #fre
    Print #fre, Join(MyArray, vbCrLf)
Close #fre

[smUX]

Also, "sContents=Input(LOF(iFF),iFF)" uses a clever trick to take the whole file into a string quickly...although I think it might be missing something (or gavio is using a format I don't know about for input :-))

Another way to do what Gavio did with loading a file quickly is in my sig below :-)

Edit: and I never knew about the join command that Bush suggested there...could be useful later :-)

[alfaifi]

Thanks to all of you guys..you were really helpful and my problems were solved

i uesd Append that smUX suggested

[smUX]

We do what we can :-)

[gavio]

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