New Day Event?

[Karl.Green]

I need to create a procedure that will run every time a new day starts (at 00:00) if the program is running at that time.

Is there some kind of event for the date changing?

The only other way I can think of doing it is to have a timer running all the time to check if the date has changed or not.

[Shaggy Hiker]

There's nothing special about a new day, as far as I know, so running the timer would be the best way to go. The question you'd have to ask is how precise you need the timing to be. If you can flex a few minutes, then set the interval to a few minutes and just run it. If you need it to be pretty precise, then set the take the current time and set the interval such that it will tick within a minute or two prior to the end of the day. In that tick, set the interval to 1000 (or even less if you want to be more precise), and check the time each tick until the desired time is hit, run your actions, then set the tick interval back to the time needed to get within a minute or two of midnight, again.

[Karl.Green]

Ah yes that's a good idea, I hadn't thought about changing the interval
It doesn't have to be too precise, I'm just making a program that will record how many key presses etc I make each day.
Thanks a lot!

[dunfiddlin]

I need to create a procedure that will run every time a new day starts (at 00:00) if the program is running at that time.

And what happens if it's not?

[Karl.Green]

And what happens if it's not?

Well nothing will go wrong as such, it's just that my statistics won't be as accurate if it doesn't happen at the same time every day

[dunfiddlin]

Well that's kinda what I figured so I was wondering whether a better solution would not be to use the Windows Task Scheduler to interact with your program rather than trying to rig up some kind of new day event within it.

[Karl.Green]

The way I have set the program up is that the number of times each key has been pressed that day is in an array and the array only gets added to the database either when the program closes, the computer shuts down or hopefully, when a new day starts. When the new day starts the array values need to be set back to 0 so that it starts counting again.

How would I use Windows Task Scheduler to help me with this? I have never used it before.

The only way I can think of is by shutting the program down at 11:59 and starting it again at 00:00 as shutting it down will save that day's data to the database and then starting it again will set everything to 0 for the new day

[dbasnett]

Something like this I think

    Dim aTimer As System.Timers.Timer

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        aTimer = New System.Timers.Timer()
        AddHandler aTimer.Elapsed, AddressOf Timer_Tick
        aTimer.AutoReset = True
        aTimer.Interval = untilEndOfDay()
        aTimer.Start()
    End Sub

    Dim saved As Boolean = False

    Private Sub Timer_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
        'this event is NOT raised on the UI thread
        If Not saved Then
            aTimer.Interval = 60 * 1000 'one minute
            saved = True
            '
            'do the save here
            '
        Else
            aTimer.Interval = untilEndOfDay()
            saved = False
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Function untilEndOfDay() As Double
        Dim d As DateTime = DateTime.Now
        'for testing
        'Dim endOfDay As DateTime = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(10)

        Dim endOfDay As DateTime = New DateTime(d.Year, d.Month, d.Day, 23, 59, 59, 999)
        Dim ts As TimeSpan = endOfDay - d
        Return ts.TotalMilliseconds
    End Function

edit:

An alternative load event handler that special cases the program starting at 00:00:00

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        aTimer = New System.Timers.Timer()
        AddHandler aTimer.Elapsed, AddressOf Timer_Tick
        aTimer.AutoReset = True
        Dim d As DateTime = DateTime.Now
        If d.Hour = 0 AndAlso d.Minute = 0 AndAlso d.Second = 0 Then
            aTimer.Interval = 1
        Else
            aTimer.Interval = untilEndOfDay()
        End If
        aTimer.Start()
    End Sub

[Karl.Green]

This seems like a good solution, I will try and implement it sometime this week, thanks!