Question

I am trying to create a service which does something every 5 seconds.
The problem is the moment I put the while(true) it gives me an error.
I imagine this is just not allowed. If so, what is a better way to implement a repetitive method?

public class repService extends Service {

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        return null;
    }

    while(true){
        Thread timer = new Thread(){
            public void run(){
                try {
                    sleep(5000);
                    // do something
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } finally {
                    // do something
                }
            }
        };
        timer.start();  
    }
}

Answer 1

which every 5 seconds does something

You can use Timer().schedule to repeat task every 5 seconds.

new Timer().schedule(new TimerTask() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                //Do your task here

            }
        }, System.currentTimeMillis(), 5000);

If you need to modify or play on UI part then make sure to write than code in runOnUiThread