DispatcherTimer Class

The DispatcherTimer is reevaluated at the top of every Dispatcher loop.

Timers are not guaranteed to execute exactly when the time interval occurs, but they are guaranteed to not execute before the time interval occurs. This is because DispatcherTimer operations are placed on the Dispatcher queue like other operations. When the DispatcherTimer operation executes is dependent on the other jobs in the queue and their priorities.

If a System.Timers.Timer is used in a WPF application, it is worth noting that the System.Timers.Timer runs on a different thread then the user interface (UI) thread. In order to access objects on the user interface (UI) thread, it is necessary to post the operation onto the Dispatcher of the user interface (UI) thread using Invoke or BeginInvoke. Reasons for using a DispatcherTimer opposed to a System.Timers.Timer are that the DispatcherTimer runs on the same thread as the Dispatcher and a DispatcherPriority can be set on the DispatcherTimer.

A DispatcherTimer will keep an object alive whenever the object's methods are bound to the timer.

The following example creates a DispatcherTimer that updates the contents of a Label and calls the InvalidateRequerySuggested method on the CommandManager.

A DispatcherTimer object named dispatcherTimer is created. The event handler dispatcherTimer_Tick is added to the Tick event of dispatcherTimer. The Interval is set to 1 second using a TimeSpan object, and the timer is started.

//  DispatcherTimer setup
dispatcherTimer = new System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer();
dispatcherTimer.Tick += new EventHandler(dispatcherTimer_Tick);
dispatcherTimer.Interval = new TimeSpan(0,0,1);
dispatcherTimer.Start();

The Tick event handler updates a Label that displays the current second, and it calls InvalidateRequerySuggested on the CommandManager.

//  System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer.Tick handler
//
//  Updates the current seconds display and calls
//  InvalidateRequerySuggested on the CommandManager to force 
//  the Command to raise the CanExecuteChanged event.
private void dispatcherTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Updating the Label which displays the current second
    lblSeconds.Content = DateTime.Now.Second;

    // Forcing the CommandManager to raise the RequerySuggested event
    CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested();
}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference

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