setTimeout inside for loop [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• setTimeout in for-loop does not print consecutive values [duplicate] 10 answers

I want a string to appear character-for-character with the following code:

function initText()
{
    var textScroller = document.getElementById('textScroller');
    var text = 'Hello how are you?';

    for(c = 0; c < text.length; c++)
    {
        setTimeout('textScroller.innerHTML += text[c]', 1000);
    }
}

window.onload = initText;

It's not working.. what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Try something like this:

function initText()
{
    var textScroller = document.getElementById('textScroller');
    var text = 'Hello how are you?';

    var c = 0;
    var interval = setInterval(function() { 
                          textScroller.innerHTML += text[c]; 
                          c++; 
                          if(c >= text.length) clearInterval(interval);
                   }, 1000);

}

Note I added clearInterval to stop it when it's needed.

Answer 2

Currently, you are defining 18 timeouts and all will be executed ~ at once. Second problem is, you pass instructions to execute as a String. In that case, the code won't have access to all variables defined in initText, because evaluated code will be executed in global scope.

IMO, this should do the job

function initText(){
    var textScroller = document.getElementById('textScroller');
    var text = 'Hello how are you?';

    var c = 0;

    (function(){
        textScroller.innerHTML += text.charAt(c++);
        if(text.length > c){
            setTimeout(arguments.callee, 1000);
        }
    })();
}

Answer 3

Even more generic than answer by @yauhen-yakimovich:

Using Timeout:

var repeat = (function () {
    return function repeat(cbWhileNotTrue, period) {
        /// <summary>Continuously repeats callback after a period has passed, until the callback triggers a stop by returning true.  Note each repetition only fires after the callback has completed.  Identifier returned is an object, prematurely stop like `timer = repeat(...); clearTimeout(timer.t);`</summary>

        var timer = {}, fn = function () {
            if (true === cbWhileNotTrue()) {
                return clearTimeout(timer.t); // no more repeat
            }
            timer.t = setTimeout(fn, period || 1000);
        };
        fn(); // engage
        return timer; // and expose stopper object
    };
})();

Using Interval:

var loop = (function () {
    return function loop(cbWhileNotTrue, period) {
        /// <summary>Continuously performs a callback once every period, until the callback triggers a stop by returning true.  Note that regardless of how long the callback takes, it will be triggered once per period.</summary>

        var timer = setInterval(function () {
            if (true === cbWhileNotTrue()) clearInterval(timer);
        }, period || 1000);
        return timer; // expose stopper
    };
})();

Slight difference between the two indicated in comments -- the repeat method only repeats after the callback performs, so if you have a "slow" callback it won't run every delay ms, but repeats after every delay between executions, whereas the loop method will fire the callback every delay ms. To prematurely stop, repeat uses an object as the returned identifier, so use clearTimeout(timer.t) instead.

Usage:

Just like answer by @soufiane-hassou:

var textScroller = document.getElementById('textScroller');
var text = 'Hello how are you?';

var c = 0;
var interval = repeat/* or loop */(function() { 
                      textScroller.innerHTML += text[c]; 
                      c++; 
                      return (c >= text.length);
               }, 1000);

As mentioned, premature stopping would be:

/* if repeat */ clearTimeout(interval.t);
/* if loop */   clearInterval(interval);

Answer 4

Try this:

function initText()
{
    var textScroller = document.getElementById('textScroller');
    var text = 'Hello how are you?';

for(c = 0; c < text.length; c++)
{
    setTimeout("textScroller.innerHTML += '" + text[c] + "'", 1000 + c*200);
}
}

window.onload = initText;

Answer 5

Try using a closure:

function init() {
    var textScroller = document.getElementById('textScroller');
    var text = 'Hello how are you?';
    var c = 0;
    function run() {
        textScroller.innerHTML += text[c++];
        if (c<text.length)
            setTimeout(run, 1000);
    }
    setTimeout(run, 1000);
}
init()

The problem in your code is that the code you put in the string will run in the global context, where textScroller is not defined (it is defined inside your function).

Answer 6

I want to share a snippet (based on answer by Soufiane Hassou). It extends to the case when you literally replace a for-loop body to be iterated over some array in a fixed interval of time. Basically same synchronous loop but with "sleep" pausing (because javascript is not a synchronous programming language).

function loop(arr, take, period) {
    period = period || 1000;
    var i = 0;
    var interval = setInterval(function() { 
        take(i, arr[i]);
        if (++i >= arr.length) { clearInterval(interval);}
    }, period);
}

Usage example:

loop([1, 2, 3, 4], function(index, elem){
    console.log('arr[' + index + ']: ' + elem);
});

Tested in Node JS. Hope that helps someone.

edit>

the following update makes code usable together with libs doing heavy "prototyping" (like jQuery or prototype):

function loop(arr, take, period) {
    period = period || 1000;
    var scope = {
        i: 0,
        arr: arr,
        take: take,
    };
    var iterate = (function iterate() {
        if (this.i >= this.arr.length) { clearInterval(this.interval); return}
        take(this.i, this.arr[this.i++]);
    }).bind(scope);
    scope.interval = setInterval(iterate, period);
}

Answer 7

Your for loop is setting a timeout for every character at once, so they will not appear in sequence, but all at once. Your setTimeout should include code to another setTimeout that will include the next character to display.

So something like this (didn't test this)

function initText()
{
    var textScroller = document.getElementById('textScroller');
    var text = 'Hello how are you?';    
    setTimeout('nextChar(text)', 1000);
}
function nextChar(text){
    if(text.length > 0){
        textScroller.innerHTML += text[0]; 
        setTimeout('nextChar(text.substring(1))', 1000);
    }
}

Answer 8

If you want to preserve setTimeOut (instead of setInterval) and use named function (instead of evaluating code block in setTimeOut call), then this could be helpful:

var b = {
  textScroller: document.getElementById('textScroller'),
  text: "Hello how are you?"
};


function initText() {
  for(c = 0; c < b.text.length; c++) {
    setTimeout("append("+c+")", 1000 + c*200);
  }
}

function append(c) {
  b.textScroller.innerHTML += b.text[c];
}

window.onload = initText;

With the above you can pass a parameter to append function.

To pass several parameters the next code does the trick:

var glo = [];

function initText()
{
  var textScroller = document.getElementById('textScroller');
  var text = "Hello how are you?";
  var timeout_time;
  for(c = 0; c < text.length; c++) {
    glo[glo.length] = {text:text, c:c, textScroller:textScroller};
    timeout_time = 1000 + c * 200;
    setTimeout("append(" + (glo.length - 1) + ")", timeout_time);
  }
}

function append(i)
{
  var obj = glo[i];
  obj.textScroller.innerHTML += obj.text[obj.c];
  obj = null;
  glo[i] = null;
}

window.onload = initText;

With the above you have only one global array glo. In loop you create new array members to glo and in append() function refer to these members using index which is passed as parameter.

CAUTION: the second code sample is not meant as best or most suitable solution to OP:s problem, but may benefit in other setTimeOut relative problems, eg. when someone wants to make a presentation or performance test where some functionalities are needed to call after some delay. The advantage of this code is to make use of for loops (many coders want to use for loops) and the possibility to use also inner loops and the ability to "send" local variables in their loop time state to timeOut functions.

Answer 9

May be better to loop in cascade. For exemple to fade a div :

div=document.createElement('div');
div.style.opacity=1;
setTimeout(function(){fade(1);},3000);
function fade(op){
    op-=.05;
    if(op>0) setTimeout(function(){div.style.opacity=op;fade(op);},30);
    else document.body.removeChild(div);
}