Question

Thread.Sleep doesn’t seem to be supported in .NET for Windows Store apps.

For example, this

System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);

will compile when targeting any .NET Framework (2.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5), but not when targeting .NET for Windows Store apps (or in a portable class library which targets both 4.5 and store).

System.Threading.Thread is still there, it just doesn’t have the Sleep method.

I need to delay something for a few seconds in my app, is there a suitable replacement?

EDIT why the delay is needed: My app is a game and the delay is to make it look like the computer opponent is “thinking” about his next move. The method is already called asynchronously (main thread isn’t blocked), I just want to slow the response time down.

Answer 1

Windows Store apps embrace asynchrony – and an “asynchronous pause” is provided by Task.Delay. So within an asynchronous method, you’d write:

await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));

… or whatever delay you want. The asynchronous method will continue 30 seconds later, but the thread will not be blocked, just as for all await expressions.