Class in the BCL that will event at a given DateTime?

Question

Is there an object that will event at a given DateTime or DateTimeOffset? I am using a Timer to do this operation now but it requires a bit of calculation on my part, was just thinking there might already be something in place.

Answer 1

If you are using ASP.NET you may be able to add an empty object into the Cache with a declared ExpirationDate then handle the CacheItemRemovedCallback. Just a thought, don't know if it will work for you.

If you not using ASP.NET you still may be able to use this trick with another caching framework such as the Enterprise Library Caching Block

Answer 2

Not that I know of. I rolled my own class to do that.

Answer 3

I don't see how you have to do any calculation:

public void StartTimer(DateTime target) {
  double msec = (target - DateTime.Now).TotalMilliseconds;
  if (msec <= 0 || msec > int.MaxValue) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException();
  timer1.Interval = (int)msec;
  timer1.Enabled = true;
}

Answer 4

I like:

System.Timers.Timer _WaitForScheduledTime;
_WaitForScheduledTime = new System.Timers.Timer();
_WaitForScheduledTime.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(WaitForScheduledTime_OnElapsed);
_WaitForScheduledTime.Interval = _ListOfJobs.IntervalUntilFirstJobIsToRun().TotalMilliseconds;
_WaitForScheduledTime.Start();

...

private void WaitForScheduledTime_OnElapsed(object source, EventArgs e)
{
    log.Debug("Ready to run at least one job");

    // restart the timer
    _WaitForScheduledTime.Interval = _ListOfJobs.IntervalUntilFirstJobIsToRun().TotalMilliseconds;
    _WaitForScheduledTime.Start();
}