Is there a way to call a custom function every couple of seconds in Google Apps Script?

Question

I'm trying to make a silly but simple little program in google apps script and sheets where it picks a random dad joke to show you every couple of seconds. I tried using setInterval(), but I found out that it isn't included in google apps script. Any suggestions?

code:

function LOL() {
  let messageList = ["Where do dads keep their jokes? In a dad-abase!","When does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes a-parent!","Two men walk into a bar. You'd think the second one would've noticed!","Does your face hurt? 'Cause it's killing me!"]
  function randInt() {
    let listLength = messageList.length
    let random = Math.floor(Math.random() * listLength);
    return random
  }
  function showMessage() {
    let int = randInt()
    console.log(int)
    return messageList[int]
  }
  return showMessage()
}

It would choose a random message from my list every minute to put in whatever cell has =LOL().

Answer 1

Here I found a solution by Tanaike that will update a custom function by using a TextFinder and combined it with Time driven trigger to automatically refresh it every minute.

Try this:

Code:

function LOL(){
  let messageList = ["Where do dads keep their jokes? In a dad-abase!","When does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes a-parent!","Two men walk into a bar. You'd think the second one would've noticed!","Does your face hurt? 'Cause it's killing me!"]
  let listLength = messageList.length
  let random = Math.floor(Math.random() * listLength);
  return messageList[random];
}

function refresher() {
  const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  const formula = "=LOL";
  sheet.createTextFinder("^\\" + formula).matchFormulaText(true).useRegularExpression(true).replaceAllWith("Loading");
  sheet.createTextFinder("Loading").matchFormulaText(true).useRegularExpression(true).replaceAllWith(formula);
}

Installable Trigger Setup:

Output: