How could one delay a function without the use of sleep / suspending the code?

Question

I need to delay a function by x amount of time. The problem is that I can't use sleep nor any function that suspends the function (that's because the function is a loop that contains more function, sleeping / suspending one will sleep / suspend all)

Is there a way I could do it?

Answer 1

If you want to execute some specific code at a certain time interval and don't want to use threads (to be able to suspend), then you have to keep track of time and execute the specific code when the delay time was exceeded.

Example (pseudo):

timestamp = getTime();

while (true) {

    if (getTime() - timestamp > delay) {

        //main functionality

        //reset timer
        timestamp = getTime();

    }

    //the other functionality you mentioned

}

With this approach, you invoke a specific fuction every time interval specified by delay. The other functions will be invoked at each iteration of the loop.

In other words, it makes no difference if you delay a function or execute it at specific time intervals.