Java: Scheduling a task in random intervals

Question

I am quite new to Java and I'm trying to generate a task that will run every 5 to 10 seconds, so at any interval in the area between 5 to 10, including 10.

I tried several things but nothing is working so far. My latest effort is below:

timer= new Timer();
Random generator = new Random();
int interval;

//The task will run after 10 seconds for the first time:
timer.schedule(task, 10000); 

//Wait for the first execution of the task to finish:               
try {
    sleep(10000);
} catch(InterruptedException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}

//Afterwards, run it every 5 to 10 seconds, until a condition becomes true:
while(!some_condition)){
    interval = (generator.nextInt(6)+5)*1000;
    timer.schedule(task,interval);

    try {
        sleep(interval);
    } catch(InterruptedException ex) {
    ex.printStackTrace();
    }
}

"task" is a TimerTask. What I get is:

Exception in thread "Thread-4" java.lang.IllegalStateException: Task already scheduled or cancelled

I understand from here that a TimerTask cannot be reused, but I am not sure how to fix it. By the way the my TimerTask is quite elaborate and lasts itself at least 1,5 seconds.

Any help will be really appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

try

public class Test1 {
    static Timer timer = new Timer();

    static class Task extends TimerTask {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            int delay = (5 + new Random().nextInt(5)) * 1000;
            timer.schedule(new Task(), delay);
            System.out.println(new Date());
        }

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        new Task().run();
    }
}