Question

Quick question regarding settimeout, does it execute periodically like setinterval?

Say I have a line that goes like setTimeout("functionx();" , 1000) ,
is functionx() executed only once (after 1 second)? or does it go like this:

1. 1 sec delay
2. run functionx()
3. execute functionx every 1 second after that?

thanks

Answer 1

setTimeout is a one-off, the function you give it is called only once.

(Off-topic: Note that you almost never want to give either setTimeout or setInterval a string containing code; instead, give it an actual function reference.)

So this will call the function foo once, after half a second or so (these things are not precise):

function foo() {
    display("Hi there");
}
setTimeout(foo, 500);

…whereas this will keep calling it every half second or so until you stop it:

var timer = setInterval(foo, 500);
// Somewhere else, stop it:
clearInterval(timer);