RxJava timer that repeats forever, and can be restarted and stopped at anytime

Question

In android i use Timer to execute task that repeats every 5 seconds and starts after 1 second in this way:

    Timer timer = new Timer();
    timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(new TimerTask() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            // Here is the repeated task
        }
    }, /*Start after*/1000, /*Repeats every*/5000);

    // here i stop the timer
    timer.cancel();

this timer will repeat Until i call timer.cancel()

I am learning RxJava with RxAndroid extension

So i found this code on internet, i tried it and it doesnt repeat:

Observable.timer(3000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
    .subscribeOn(Schedulers.newThread())
    .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
    .subscribe(new Action1<Long>() {
        @Override
        public void call(Long aLong) {
             // here is the task that should repeat
        }
    });

so what is the alternative for the android Timer in RxJava.

Answer 1

timer operator emits an item after a specified delay then completes. I think you looking for the interval operator.

Subscription subscription = Observable.interval(1000, 5000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
            .subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
            .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
            .subscribe(new Action1<Long>() {
                public void call(Long aLong) {
                    // here is the task that should repeat
                }
            });

if you want to stop it you just call unsubscribe on the subscription:

subscription.unsubscribe()