C# Timer or Thread.Sleep

Question

I am running a windows service and using a loop and Thread.Sleep to repeat a task, would it be better to use a timer method?

If yes a code example would be great

I am currently using this code to repeat

int curMinute;
int lastMinute = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(-1).Minute;

while (condition)
{
   curMinute = DateTime.Now.Minute;

   if (lastMinute < curMinute) {
         // do your once-per-minute code here
         lastMinute = curMinute;
   }

   Thread.Sleep(50000);      // sleeps for 50 seconds

   if (error condition that would break you out of this) {
       break;      // leaves looping structure
   }
}

Answer 1

A timer is a better idea, IMO. That way, if your service is asked to stop, it can respond to that very quickly, and just not call the timer tick handler again... if you're sleeping, the service manager will either have to wait 50 seconds or kill your thread, neither of which is terribly nice.