Some features of this site require JavaScript.
timeoutID = window.setTimeout(func, delay, [param1, param2, ...]); timeoutID = window.setTimeout(code, delay);
where
timeoutID is the ID of the timeout, which can be used with window.clearTimeout.
func is the function you want to execute after delay milliseconds.
code in the alternate syntax, is a string of code you want to execute after delay milliseconds. (not recommended)
delay is the number of milliseconds (thousandths of a second) that the function call should be delayed by.
Note that passing additional parameters to the function in the first syntax does not work in Internet Explorer.
Introduced with JavaScript 1.0, Netscape 2.0. Passing a Function object reference was introduced with JavaScript 1.2, Netscape 4.0; supported by the MSHTML DOM since version 5.0.
window.setTimeout('window.parent.generateOutput()', 1000);
function generateOutput(aConcise) {
if(aConcise)
parent.generateConciseOutput();
else
parent.generateOutput();
}
window.setTimeout(generateOutput, 1000, true);
<html>
<head>
<title>setTimeout example</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
function delayedAlert()
{
timeoutID = window.setTimeout(slowAlert, 2000);
}
function slowAlert()
{
alert("That was really slow!");
}
function clearAlert()
{
window.clearTimeout(timeoutID);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<button onclick="delayedAlert();"
>show an alert box after 2 seconds</button><br>
<button onclick="clearAlert();">Cancel</button>
</body>
</html>
See also clearTimeout() example.
You can cancel the timeout using window.clearTimeout().
If you wish to have your function called repeatedly (i.e. every N milliseconds), consider using window.setInterval().
Code executed by setTimeout() is run in a separate execution context to the function from which it was called. As a consequence, the this keyword for the called function will be set to the window (or global) object, it will not be the same as the this value for the function that called setTimeout. This issue is explained in more detail in the JavaScript reference.
Page last modified 12:36, 2 Jul 2008 by Vor0nwe?