How to use setInterval in JavaScript

When you want to run a method at a regular points in time, your best bet is to create a new interval.

An interval is a timer that runs a method at a regular interval of time until you clear it.

In this post, we'll learn how to create an interval in JavaScript.

Creating an interval

The recommended way to create an interval is to use the built-in setInterval method.

This method takes two arguments, the first is the method to run, and the second is the interval in milliseconds.

	const callback = () => {
    console.log("Hello world");
};

const interval = 1000;

const timer = setInterval(callback, interval);

In the example above, we create an interval that runs the callback method every 1,000 milliseconds, or 1 second.

Once you are done with the interval, it is recommended that you clear the interval.

If you do not clear the interval, JavaScript will continue to run it indefinitely.

To clear an interval, you can use the clearInterval method.

This method requires the interval to clear as an argument.

	const callback = () => {
    console.log("Hello world");
};

const interval = 1000;

const timer = setInterval(callback, interval);

clearInterval(timer);

This is why it was important to store the interval in a variable because we need to pass it to the clearInterval method.

Conclusion

In this post, we learned how to create an interval in JavaScript.

Simply use the setInterval method to create an interval, and the clearInterval method to clear it.

Thanks for reading!

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