How to use the .NET Timer class to trigger an event at a specific time?

Question

I would like to have an event triggered in my app which runs continuously during the day at a certain time, say at 4:00pm. I thought about running the timer every second and when the time is equal to 4:00pm run the event. That works. But I'm wondering if there's a way to just get the callback once at 4:00pm and not having to keep checking.

Answer 1

How about something like this, using the System.Threading.Timer class?

var t = new Timer(TimerCallback);

// Figure how much time until 4:00
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime fourOClock = DateTime.Today.AddHours(16.0);

// If it's already past 4:00, wait until 4:00 tomorrow    
if (now > fourOClock)
{
    fourOClock = fourOClock.AddDays(1.0);
}

int msUntilFour = (int)((fourOClock - now).TotalMilliseconds);

// Set the timer to elapse only once, at 4:00.
t.Change(msUntilFour, Timeout.Infinite);

Note that if you use a System.Threading.Timer, the callback specified by TimerCallback will be executed on a thread pool (non-UI) thread—so if you're planning on doing something with your UI at 4:00, you'll have to marshal the code appropriately (e.g., using Control.Invoke in a Windows Forms app, or Dispatcher.Invoke in a WPF app).