How to Create a Timer in Wpf

Where is the WPF Timer control?

The usual WPF timer is the DispatcherTimer, which is not a control but used in code. It basically works the same way like the WinForms timer:

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

private void dispatcherTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
  // code goes here
}

More on the DispatcherTimer can be found here

How do I create a timer in WPF?

In WPF, you use a DispatcherTimer.

System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer dispatcherTimer = new System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer();
dispatcherTimer.Tick += new EventHandler(dispatcherTimer_Tick);
dispatcherTimer.Interval = new TimeSpan(0,5,0);
dispatcherTimer.Start();

private void dispatcherTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
  // code goes here
}

How do I create a timer for WPF

You should use a DispatcherTimer:

using System.Windows.Threading;
...

DispatcherTimer timer = new DispatcherTimer();
timer.Tick += TimerTick;
timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1);
timer.Start();
...

private void TimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Put some code here
}

How to make a wpf countdown timer?

You can use DispatcherTimer class (msdn).

Duration of time you can hold in TimeSpan structure (msdn).

If you want formatting TimeSpan to hh:mm:ss you should invoke ToString method with "c" argument (msdn).

Example:

XAML:

<Window x:Class="CountdownTimer.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Grid>
        <TextBlock Name="tbTime" />
    </Grid>
</Window>

Code-behind:

using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Threading;

namespace CountdownTimer
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        DispatcherTimer _timer;
        TimeSpan _time;

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            _time = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10);

            _timer = new DispatcherTimer(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 1), DispatcherPriority.Normal, delegate
                {
                    tbTime.Text = _time.ToString("c");
                    if (_time == TimeSpan.Zero) _timer.Stop();
                    _time = _time.Add(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(-1));                    
                }, Application.Current.Dispatcher);

            _timer.Start();            
        }
    }
}

Creating stopwatch in WPF - time precison

This example can be quite useful for you.

public partial class MainWindow: Window   
        {  
            DispatcherTimer dispatcherTimer = new DispatcherTimer();  
            Stopwatch stopWatch= new Stopwatch();  
            string currentTime = string.Empty;  
            public MainWindow()   
            {  
                InitializeComponent();  
                dispatcherTimer .Tick += new EventHandler(dt_Tick);  
                dispatcherTimer .Interval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 0, 1);  
            }  
      
            void dt_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)   
            {  
                if (stopWatch.IsRunning)   
                {  
                    TimeSpan ts = stopWatch.Elapsed;  
                    currentTime = String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}",  
                    ts.Minutes, ts.Seconds, ts.Milliseconds / 10);  
                    clocktxt.Text = currentTime;  
                }  
            }  
      
            private void startbtn_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)  
            {  
                stopWatch.Start();  
                dispatcherTimer .Start();  
            }  
      
            private void stopbtn_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)   
            {  
                if (stopWatch.IsRunning)  
                {  
                    stopWatch.Stop();  
                }  
                elapsedtimeitem.Items.Add(currentTime);  
            }  
      
            private void resetbtn_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)   
            {  
                stopWatch.Reset();  
                clocktxt.Text = "00:00:00";  
            }  
        }  

How do I create a Timer in C#?

Use a DispatcherTimer:

using System.Windows.Threading;
...

var t = new DispatcherTimer();

t.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(15);
t.Tick += timer_Tick;
t.Start();

void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}

WPF / C# (No MVVM) Timer with Countdown Clock

You don't actually need more than a simple DispatcherTimer and a DateTime that is cyclically reset to the current time + 300 seconds.

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    private readonly DispatcherTimer timer = new DispatcherTimer();
    private DateTime endTime;

    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1);
        timer.Tick += new EventHandler(OnTimerTick);
        timer.Start();
    }

    private void OnTimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        var now = DateTime.Now;

        if (endTime < now)
        {
            endTime = now.AddSeconds(300);
        }

        label.Content = (endTime - now).ToString(@"mm\:ss");
    }
}

C# DispatchTimer WPF Countdown Timer

A better approach would be to do it with a TimeSpan rather than an int with a number. Setting the TimeSpan value in the following application will do the countdown as I want.

TimeSpan.FromMinutes for minutes

TimSpan.FromSeconds for seconds

You can check here for more detailed information.

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    DispatcherTimer dispatcherTimer;
    TimeSpan time;
    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        time = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(15);
        dispatcherTimer = new DispatcherTimer();
        dispatcherTimer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1);
        dispatcherTimer.Tick += DispatcherTimer_Tick;
        dispatcherTimer.Start();
    }

    private void DispatcherTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (time == TimeSpan.Zero) dispatcherTimer.Stop();
        else
        { 
            time = time.Add(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(-1));
            MyTime.Text = time.ToString("c");
        }
    }
}

Xaml Code

   <Grid>
    <TextBlock Name="MyTime" />
</Grid>

WPF C# - Timer countdown

I've figured the complete code out as such:

DispatcherTimer _timer;

public MainWindow()
{
    _myTimer = new DispatcherTimer();
    _myTimer.Tick += MyTimerTick;
    _myTimer.Interval = new TimeSpan(0,0,0,1);
}

private void ElementFlowSelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{
    _counter = 0;
    _myTimer.Stop();
    _myTimer.Interval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 1);
    _myTimer.Start();
}

private int _counter;
public int Counter
{
    get { return _counter; }
    set
        {
            _counter = value;
            OnPropertyChanged("Counter");
        }
}
private void MyTimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Counter++;
    if (Counter == 2)
    {
        _myTimer.Stop();
        MessageBox.Show(“Reached the 2 second countdown”);
    }
}
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
    PropertyChangedEventHandler e = PropertyChanged;
    if (e != null)
        {
            e(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
}

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