Run a function periodically in Scala

I want to call an arbitrary function every n seconds. Basically I want something identical to SetInterval from Javascript. How can I achieve this in Scala?

Solution 1:

You could use standard stuff from java.util.concurrent:

import java.util.concurrent._

val ex = new ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor(1)
val task = new Runnable { 
  def run() = println("Beep!") 
}
val f = ex.scheduleAtFixedRate(task, 1, 1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
f.cancel(false)

Or java.util.Timer:

val t = new java.util.Timer()
val task = new java.util.TimerTask {
  def run() = println("Beep!") 
}
t.schedule(task, 1000L, 1000L)
task.cancel()

Solution 2:

If you happen to be on Akka, Scheduler is quite convenient for this:

val system = ActorSystem("mySystem", config)
// ...now with system in current scope:
import system.dispatcher
system.scheduler.schedule(10 seconds, 1 seconds) {
  doSomeWork()
}

There is also scheduleOnce for one-off execution.

The usual warnings about closing over mutable state apply.

Solution 3:

It can be more functional as in

    import java.util.TimerTask
    import java.util.Timer

    object TimerDemo {
      implicit def function2TimerTask(f: () => Unit): TimerTask = {
        return new TimerTask {
          def run() = f()
        }
      }

      def main(args : Array[String]) {
        def timerTask() = println("Inside timer task")

        val timer = new Timer()
        timer.schedule(function2TimerTask(timerTask),100, 10)

        Thread.sleep(5000)

        timer.cancel()

      }

    }