How do I clear this setInterval inside a function?

Question

Normally, I’d set the interval to a variable and then clear it like var the_int = setInterval(); clearInterval(the_int); but for my code to work I put it in an anonymous function:

function intervalTrigger() {
  setInterval(function() {
    if (timedCount >= markers.length) {
      timedCount = 0;
    }

    google.maps.event.trigger(markers[timedCount], "click");
    timedCount++;
  }, 5000);
};

intervalTrigger();

How do I clear this? I gave it a shot and tried var test = intervalTrigger(); clearInterval(test); to be sure, but that didn’t work.

Basically, I need this to stop triggering once my Google Map is clicked, e.g.

google.maps.event.addListener(map, "click", function() {
  //stop timer
});

Answer 1

The setInterval method returns a handle that you can use to clear the interval. If you want the function to return it, you just return the result of the method call:

function intervalTrigger() {
  return window.setInterval( function() {
    if (timedCount >= markers.length) {
       timedCount = 0;
    }
    google.maps.event.trigger(markers[timedCount], "click");
    timedCount++;
  }, 5000 );
};
var id = intervalTrigger();

Then to clear the interval:

window.clearInterval(id);