WorkerGlobalScope: setTimeout() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

Note: This feature is only available in Web Workers.

The setTimeout() method of the WorkerGlobalScope interface sets a timer which executes a function or specified piece of code once the timer expires.

Syntax

js
setTimeout(code)
setTimeout(code, delay)

setTimeout(functionRef)
setTimeout(functionRef, delay)
setTimeout(functionRef, delay, param1)
setTimeout(functionRef, delay, param1, param2)
setTimeout(functionRef, delay, param1, param2, /* …, */ paramN)

Parameters

functionRef

A function to be executed after the timer expires.

code

An alternative syntax that allows you to include a string instead of a function, which is compiled and executed when the timer expires. This syntax is not recommended for the same reasons that make using eval() a security risk.

delay Optional

The time, in milliseconds that the timer should wait before the specified function or code is executed. If this parameter is omitted, a value of 0 is used, meaning execute "immediately", or more accurately, the next event cycle.

Note that in either case, the actual delay may be longer than intended; see Reasons for delays longer than specified.

Also note that if the value isn't a number, implicit type coercion is silently done on the value to convert it to a number — which can lead to unexpected and surprising results; see Non-number delay values are silently coerced into numbers for an example.

param1, …, paramN Optional

Additional arguments which are passed through to the function specified by functionRef.

Return value

The returned timeoutID is a positive integer value which identifies the timer created by the call to setTimeout(). This value can be passed to clearTimeout() to cancel the timeout.

It is guaranteed that a timeoutID value will never be reused by a subsequent call to setTimeout() or setInterval() on the same worker while the timer is still active. However, different objects use separate pools of IDs.

Description

See Window.setTimeout() for detailed descriptions.

Examples

See Window.setTimeout() for examples.

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# dom-settimeout-dev

Browser compatibility

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See also