i am writing a code in python and i just want one function to sleep not the whole code in time.sleep(). but i couldn't find a way.
my code:
from time import sleep
a = int()
def calc(a,b):
while True:
a=a*b
if a >> 12:
sleep(12)
#i just want this func to sleep here.
def print(msg):
while True:
msg = a
print(msg)
#i don't want this func to sleep
what should i do?
Use asyncio
import asyncio
async def calc(a,b):
while True:
a=a*b
if a >> 12:
await asyncio.sleep(12)
I think You need to read a little about the function time.sleep. Here's what the documentation says about it:
Suspend execution of the calling thread for the given number of seconds. The argument may be a floating point number to indicate a more precise sleep time. The actual suspension time may be less than that requested because any caught signal will terminate the sleep() following execution of that signal’s catching routine. Also, the suspension time may be longer than requested by an arbitrary amount because of the scheduling of other activity in the system.
The function pauses the program at the desired place, if you call it. It does not stop the other function.
code inside f1() function will be executed 2 seconds after running the code, but in that time f2() function will be executed.
from time import time, sleep
def f1():
print("Function1")
def f2():
print("Function2")
t1 = time() # Stores current system time in seconds
print(t1)
time_to_delay_f1 = 2
while True:
if time()-t1 > time_to_delay_f1: # time()-t1 is the time passed after assigning t1 = time(), [see before 2 lines]
f1()
else:
f2()
I am making a Who Wants to be a Millionare game in Python using graphics. I want the user to get 45 seconds per question to answer it. However, whenever I put a timer in my code it waits for 45 seconds first, then lets the user answer, instead of running in the background and letting the user answer at the same time.
Using the threading module to run multiple threads at once
You could use the Python threading module to make two things happen at once, thereby allowing the user to answer while the timer ticks down.
Some example code utilizing this:
from threading import Thread
from time import sleep
import sys
def timer():
for i in range(45):
sleep(1) #waits 45 seconds
sys.exit() #stops program after timer runs out, you could also have it print something or keep the user from attempting to answer any longer
def question():
answer = input("foo?")
t1 = Thread(target=timer)
t2 = Thread(target=question)
t1.start() #Calls first function
t2.start() #Calls second function to run at same time
It's not perfect, but this code should start two different threads, one asking a question and one timing out 45 seconds before terminating the program. More information on threading can be found in the docs. Hope this helps with your project!
Try using time.time(). This returns a the amount of seconds since January 1, 1970 in UNIXTime. You can then create a while loop such that:
initial_time = time.time()
while time.time()-initial_time < 45:
#Code
Hope this helped!
I have been searching and searching on how to figure out how to make an input or something go into a while loop. As in, the input() command won't stop my stopwatch. I have tried tkinter, pygame, and a couple other methods, but they just didn't work. If anyone can help me out, I would prefer something small and simple, if that's even possible. And to be specific on what I want to learn to do, is basically allowing, when any key is pressed, for it to instantly stop (preferably without hitting enter). Thanks, saddlepiggy!
Here is what I have so far, with nothing to activate the stopping:
#Setup (Variables and stuff)
hours = 0
minutes = 0
seconds = 0
import time
#Main Part of Code
print("Welcome to PyWatch, a stopwatch coded in Python!")
print("Press any key to start the stopwatch.")
print("Then, press any key to stop it!")
start = input("")
while hours < 48:
seconds = seconds + 1
time.sleep(1)
print(hours, "hours,", minutes, "minutes,", seconds, "seconds")
#If Statements for getting seconds/minutes/hours
if (seconds == 60):
minutes = minutes + 1
seconds = seconds - 60
if (minutes == 60):
hours =hours + 1
minutes = minutes - 60
Threading is what you want.
Create a second thread that waits for the input while your first thread handles your stopwatch code. Behold:
import threading, sys
def halt():
raw_input()
threading.Thread(target=halt).start()
while hours < 48 and threading.active_count() > 1:
seconds = seconds + 1
time.sleep(1)
# copy and past what you had before
Allow me to elaborate on what's happening: Thus far, all of the code you've written has been single threaded. This means only one line of code is executed at a time, there's only one thread of execution. Consequentially, your script can't multitask, it can't wait for input and print the time at the same time.
So when this line is evaluated
threading.Thread(target=halt).start()
The main thread creates a second thread of execution. Meanwhile, the main thread goes on and enters the while loop. The target parameter is the entry point of the thread, it's the starting point. It's analogous to if __name__ == "__main__:" for the main thread. Just as the main thread terminates when it reaches the end of if __name__ == "__main__:", our second thread will terminate once it reaches the end of halt().
The threading.active_count function tells you how many threads in are current in execution.
You can't do that in Python. You are asking for a keyboard event. Keyboard events are shipped with a GUI. This thread explains pretty much everything: QKeyPress event in PyQt
Or use an external application for your OS that can append output to a file that is read by your Python program in a loop. When a certain event is detected you can perform some actions. For Linux this tread explains: https://superuser.com/questions/248517/show-keys-pressed-in-linux
I'm trying to create a program that runs in a similar format to the game show Countdown.
I have found various ways to create a timer, most successfully with the time.sleep command and a while loop.
However, the user needs to be able to input a word whilst the timer is going on, otherwise the user could take as long as they want to think of their word after the timer has stopped. Once the timer has stopped, whatever the user has typed in should be taken as their word. I haven't found any kind of solution for this yet as python runs sequentially so it's difficult to have a timer and an input at the same time.
This worked for me previously... Uses time.time(). If this isn't what you are looking for maybe check out perf_counter()
import msvcrt
import time
def Countdown():
p = 3.00
alarm = time.time() + p
text = []
while True:
n = time.time()
if msvcrt.kbhit():
text.append(msvcrt.getche())
if n < alarm:
print(round(alarm - n))
else:
print("Time's up!")
break
Countdown()
Making a countdown timer with Python and Tkinter?
This question already has answers here:
How do I get my program to sleep for 50 milliseconds?
(6 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
How do I put a time delay in a Python script?
This delays for 2.5 seconds:
import time
time.sleep(2.5)
Here is another example where something is run approximately once a minute:
import time
while True:
print("This prints once a minute.")
time.sleep(60) # Delay for 1 minute (60 seconds).
Use sleep() from the time module. It can take a float argument for sub-second resolution.
from time import sleep
sleep(0.1) # Time in seconds
How can I make a time delay in Python?
In a single thread I suggest the sleep function:
>>> from time import sleep
>>> sleep(4)
This function actually suspends the processing of the thread in which it is called by the operating system, allowing other threads and processes to execute while it sleeps.
Use it for that purpose, or simply to delay a function from executing. For example:
>>> def party_time():
... print('hooray!')
...
>>> sleep(3); party_time()
hooray!
"hooray!" is printed 3 seconds after I hit Enter.
Example using sleep with multiple threads and processes
Again, sleep suspends your thread - it uses next to zero processing power.
To demonstrate, create a script like this (I first attempted this in an interactive Python 3.5 shell, but sub-processes can't find the party_later function for some reason):
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor, ProcessPoolExecutor, as_completed
from time import sleep, time
def party_later(kind='', n=''):
sleep(3)
return kind + n + ' party time!: ' + __name__
def main():
with ProcessPoolExecutor() as proc_executor:
with ThreadPoolExecutor() as thread_executor:
start_time = time()
proc_future1 = proc_executor.submit(party_later, kind='proc', n='1')
proc_future2 = proc_executor.submit(party_later, kind='proc', n='2')
thread_future1 = thread_executor.submit(party_later, kind='thread', n='1')
thread_future2 = thread_executor.submit(party_later, kind='thread', n='2')
for f in as_completed([
proc_future1, proc_future2, thread_future1, thread_future2,]):
print(f.result())
end_time = time()
print('total time to execute four 3-sec functions:', end_time - start_time)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Example output from this script:
thread1 party time!: __main__
thread2 party time!: __main__
proc1 party time!: __mp_main__
proc2 party time!: __mp_main__
total time to execute four 3-sec functions: 3.4519670009613037
Multithreading
You can trigger a function to be called at a later time in a separate thread with the Timer threading object:
>>> from threading import Timer
>>> t = Timer(3, party_time, args=None, kwargs=None)
>>> t.start()
>>>
>>> hooray!
>>>
The blank line illustrates that the function printed to my standard output, and I had to hit Enter to ensure I was on a prompt.
The upside of this method is that while the Timer thread was waiting, I was able to do other things, in this case, hitting Enter one time - before the function executed (see the first empty prompt).
There isn't a respective object in the multiprocessing library. You can create one, but it probably doesn't exist for a reason. A sub-thread makes a lot more sense for a simple timer than a whole new subprocess.
Delays can be also implemented by using the following methods.
The first method:
import time
time.sleep(5) # Delay for 5 seconds.
The second method to delay would be using the implicit wait method:
driver.implicitly_wait(5)
The third method is more useful when you have to wait until a particular action is completed or until an element is found:
self.wait.until(EC.presence_of_element_located((By.ID, 'UserName'))
There are five methods which I know: time.sleep(), pygame.time.wait(), matplotlib's pyplot.pause(), .after(), and asyncio.sleep().
time.sleep() example (do not use if using tkinter):
import time
print('Hello')
time.sleep(5) # Number of seconds
print('Bye')
pygame.time.wait() example (not recommended if you are not using the pygame window, but you could exit the window instantly):
import pygame
# If you are going to use the time module
# don't do "from pygame import *"
pygame.init()
print('Hello')
pygame.time.wait(5000) # Milliseconds
print('Bye')
matplotlib's function pyplot.pause() example (not recommended if you are not using the graph, but you could exit the graph instantly):
import matplotlib
print('Hello')
matplotlib.pyplot.pause(5) # Seconds
print('Bye')
The .after() method (best with Tkinter):
import tkinter as tk # Tkinter for Python 2
root = tk.Tk()
print('Hello')
def ohhi():
print('Oh, hi!')
root.after(5000, ohhi) # Milliseconds and then a function
print('Bye')
Finally, the asyncio.sleep() method (has to be in an async loop):
await asyncio.sleep(5)
A bit of fun with a sleepy generator.
The question is about time delay. It can be fixed time, but in some cases we might need a delay measured since last time. Here is one possible solution:
Delay measured since last time (waking up regularly)
The situation can be, we want to do something as regularly as possible and we do not want to bother with all the last_time, next_time stuff all around our code.
Buzzer generator
The following code (sleepy.py) defines a buzzergen generator:
import time
from itertools import count
def buzzergen(period):
nexttime = time.time() + period
for i in count():
now = time.time()
tosleep = nexttime - now
if tosleep > 0:
time.sleep(tosleep)
nexttime += period
else:
nexttime = now + period
yield i, nexttime
Invoking regular buzzergen
from sleepy import buzzergen
import time
buzzer = buzzergen(3) # Planning to wake up each 3 seconds
print time.time()
buzzer.next()
print time.time()
time.sleep(2)
buzzer.next()
print time.time()
time.sleep(5) # Sleeping a bit longer than usually
buzzer.next()
print time.time()
buzzer.next()
print time.time()
And running it we see:
1400102636.46
1400102639.46
1400102642.46
1400102647.47
1400102650.47
We can also use it directly in a loop:
import random
for ring in buzzergen(3):
print "now", time.time()
print "ring", ring
time.sleep(random.choice([0, 2, 4, 6]))
And running it we might see:
now 1400102751.46
ring (0, 1400102754.461676)
now 1400102754.46
ring (1, 1400102757.461676)
now 1400102757.46
ring (2, 1400102760.461676)
now 1400102760.46
ring (3, 1400102763.461676)
now 1400102766.47
ring (4, 1400102769.47115)
now 1400102769.47
ring (5, 1400102772.47115)
now 1400102772.47
ring (6, 1400102775.47115)
now 1400102775.47
ring (7, 1400102778.47115)
As we see, this buzzer is not too rigid and allow us to catch up with regular sleepy intervals even if we oversleep and get out of regular schedule.
The Tkinter library in the Python standard library is an interactive tool which you can import. Basically, you can create buttons and boxes and popups and stuff that appear as windows which you manipulate with code.
If you use Tkinter, do not use time.sleep(), because it will muck up your program. This happened to me. Instead, use root.after() and replace the values for however many seconds, with a milliseconds. For example, time.sleep(1) is equivalent to root.after(1000) in Tkinter.
Otherwise, time.sleep(), which many answers have pointed out, which is the way to go.
Delays are done with the time library, specifically the time.sleep() function.
To just make it wait for a second:
from time import sleep
sleep(1)
This works because by doing:
from time import sleep
You extract the sleep function only from the time library, which means you can just call it with:
sleep(seconds)
Rather than having to type out
time.sleep()
Which is awkwardly long to type.
With this method, you wouldn't get access to the other features of the time library and you can't have a variable called sleep. But you could create a variable called time.
Doing from [library] import [function] (, [function2]) is great if you just want certain parts of a module.
You could equally do it as:
import time
time.sleep(1)
and you would have access to the other features of the time library like time.clock() as long as you type time.[function](), but you couldn't create the variable time because it would overwrite the import. A solution to this to do
import time as t
which would allow you to reference the time library as t, allowing you to do:
t.sleep()
This works on any library.
If you would like to put a time delay in a Python script:
Use time.sleep or Event().wait like this:
from threading import Event
from time import sleep
delay_in_sec = 2
# Use time.sleep like this
sleep(delay_in_sec) # Returns None
print(f'slept for {delay_in_sec} seconds')
# Or use Event().wait like this
Event().wait(delay_in_sec) # Returns False
print(f'waited for {delay_in_sec} seconds')
However, if you want to delay the execution of a function do this:
Use threading.Timer like this:
from threading import Timer
delay_in_sec = 2
def hello(delay_in_sec):
print(f'function called after {delay_in_sec} seconds')
t = Timer(delay_in_sec, hello, [delay_in_sec]) # Hello function will be called 2 seconds later with [delay_in_sec] as the *args parameter
t.start() # Returns None
print("Started")
Outputs:
Started
function called after 2 seconds
Why use the later approach?
It does not stop execution of the whole script (except for the function you pass it).
After starting the timer you can also stop it by doing timer_obj.cancel().
asyncio.sleep
Notice in recent Python versions (Python 3.4 or higher) you can use asyncio.sleep. It's related to asynchronous programming and asyncio. Check out next example:
import asyncio
from datetime import datetime
#asyncio.coroutine
def countdown(iteration_name, countdown_sec):
"""
Just count for some countdown_sec seconds and do nothing else
"""
while countdown_sec > 0:
print(f'{iteration_name} iterates: {countdown_sec} seconds')
yield from asyncio.sleep(1)
countdown_sec -= 1
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
tasks = [asyncio.ensure_future(countdown('First Count', 2)),
asyncio.ensure_future(countdown('Second Count', 3))]
start_time = datetime.utcnow()
# Run both methods. How much time will both run...?
loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.wait(tasks))
loop.close()
print(f'total running time: {datetime.utcnow() - start_time}')
We may think it will "sleep" for 2 seconds for first method and then 3 seconds in the second method, a total of 5 seconds running time of this code. But it will print:
total_running_time: 0:00:03.01286
It is recommended to read asyncio official documentation for more details.
While everyone else has suggested the de facto time module, I thought I'd share a different method using matplotlib's pyplot function, pause.
An example
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
plt.pause(5) # Pauses the program for 5 seconds
Typically this is used to prevent the plot from disappearing as soon as it is plotted or to make crude animations.
This would save you an import if you already have matplotlib imported.
This is an easy example of a time delay:
import time
def delay(period='5'):
# If the user enters nothing, it'll wait 5 seconds
try:
# If the user not enters a int, I'll just return ''
time.sleep(period)
except:
return ''
Another, in Tkinter:
import tkinter
def tick():
pass
root = Tk()
delay = 100 # Time in milliseconds
root.after(delay, tick)
root.mainloop()
You also can try this:
import time
# The time now
start = time.time()
while time.time() - start < 10: # Run 1- seconds
pass
# Do the job
Now the shell will not crash or not react.