How can i execute code for a specific amount of time in java?

Question

I'd like to execute some code for, let's say 5 seconds, inside of a method that listens for events. I've tried to use Threads but wasn't able to make it work properly.

This is my code for now, it's just a listener that triggers when a message with the string in the if statement is detected:

if (message != null){
            if (message.equalsIgnoreCase("w")){

            }
        }

this check is ran every second so i don't know if "while" statements could work

Answer 1

A trivial approach would be to simply execute your code in a loop and check in each iteration whether your timing-threshold was reached, such as:

// necessary imports for using classes Instant and Duration.
import java.time.Instant;
import java.time.Duration;

// ...

// start time point of your code execution.
Instant start = Instant.now();

// targeted duration of your code execution (e.g. 5 sec.).
Duration duration = Duration.ofSeconds(5);
     
// loop your code execution and test in each iteration whether you reached your duration threshold.
while (Duration.between(start, Instant.now()).toMillis() <= duration.toMillis())
{
    // execute your code here ...
}