Running Timers in the Background c# Console

Question

Wondering if there's a way to have a timer running in the background of a project that can be accessed if the user inputs a certain thing. At the moment this doesn't work

Timer t = new Timer(Program.TimerCallback, null, 0, 1000);
if (Console.ReadLine() == "i")
{
    TimeSpan time = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(Program.seconds);
    string str = time.ToString(@"mm\:ss");
    Console.WriteLine("Time :" + str);
}
public static void TimerCallback(object o)
{
    seconds +=1;
}

I used to have to code above within the Callback but then I couldn't do anything while it was running the timer. Thanks for any help

Answer 1

If I understand correctly, you don't actually need a timer:

DateTime startTime = DateTime.Now; // Just have a reference time
if (Console.ReadLine() == "i")
{
    TimeSpan time = DateTime.Now - startTime; // Compute difference between "now" and "then"
    string str = time.ToString(@"mm\:ss");
    Console.WriteLine("Time :" + str);
}

should do the trick.

Subtracting two DateTimes like this gives you a TimeSpan: DateTime.Subtraction Operator

If you need better precision, you can make use of the StopWatch class, which also has a little more convenient API:

Stopwatch stopWatch = new Stopwatch();
stopWatch.Start();
if (Console.ReadLine() == "i")
{
    TimeSpan time = stopWatch.Elapsed;
    string str = time.ToString(@"mm\:ss");
    Console.WriteLine("Time :" + str);
}

BUT do not think you can do (micro-)benchmarks with this. If you intend to do so, consider Benchmark.NET (not affiliated).