Using timer (setTimeout) and interval (setInterval) in JavaScript

This is a simple description on how to use the timer and interval functionalities build in to JavaScript.

Timer function

The purpose of a timer function is to delay execution of code for x number of milliseconds.

Here’s an example:

var timer = setTimeout(function () {
– Your code goes here!
}, 250);

If you want to abort this timer, you can call the clearTimeout() and pass in the timer object as the argument.

clearTimeout(timer);

Interval function

The purpose of the interval function is to execute code repeatedly with a time interval.

This example will execute code every 250 milliseconds.

var interval = setInterval(function () {
– Your code goes here!
}, 250);

And here is how you cancel the interval.

clearInterval(interval);