Which one of the two is idiomatic way? time.Sleep() or ticker?

Question

I have to execute some statements say every minute. I am not sure which one of the following I should follow. It would be great if someone can explain the pros and cons in terms of memory and CPU.

time.Sleep()

func main() {

go func() {
    for {
        time.Sleep(time.Minute)
        fmt.Println("Hi")
    }
}()

time.Sleep(10 * time.Minute) //just to keep main thread running

}

Or Ticker

func main() {

go func() {
     for _ = range time.Tick(time.Minute) {
      fmt.Println("Hi")
     }

}()

time.Sleep(10 * time.Minute) //just to keep main thread running

}

related: How to get time.Tick to tick immediately

FObersteiner
– FObersteiner

2022-06-23 08:00:36 +00:00
Commented Jun 23, 2022 at 8:00 — FObersteiner
– FObersteiner, Commented Jun 23, 2022 at 8:00

mbuechmann · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-15 14:10:31Z

28

From the docs:

NewTicker returns a new Ticker containing a channel that will send the time with a period specified by the duration argument. It adjusts the intervals or drops ticks to make up for slow receivers. The duration d must be greater than zero; if not, NewTicker will panic. Stop the ticker to release associated resources.

time.Sleep just waits for the provided time and continues with the program. There is no adjustment if the rest of the code takes longer.

The ticker takes the execution time of the provided block into account and skips an interval, if necessary.

Imagine this scenario: You provide an interval of one minute and your code takes 10 seconds to execute.

In your first version your program executes your code for ten seconds and then sleeps for 60 seconds. Practically it gets called every 70 seconds.

In your second version your code gets executed for 10 seconds, then the ticker adjusts the wait time to 50 seconds. Your code gets executed exactly each minute.

edited Nov 15, 2018 at 14:10

answered Nov 15, 2018 at 9:05

mbuechmann

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1 Comment

Adrian Over a year ago

To me it's also significant that the Ticker code is simpler and clearer; it sets up a block of code and indicates it is to be run every (duration). The Sleep code, on the other hand, is less concise and less obvious: it sets up an infinite loop, then at the very end adds a sleep.

Magiq · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-15 09:09:02Z

1

In the example above there is no difference. But ticker also concurrent safe since it uses channels. For example you can create few workers that should make some job every 2 seconds and you need 1 worker make this work at same time, than you use ticker.

answered Nov 15, 2018 at 9:09

Magiq

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