Vba excel таймер задержки

Complete Guide to Pausing VBA Execution

Background Information and Explanation

All Microsoft Office applications run VBA code in the same thread as the main user interface. This means, as long as the VBA code doesn’t call DoEvents, code execution freezes the entire application (It will show as «not responding» in Task-Manager!). This includes calls to the Sleep API function. Once Sleep is called, there is no way of recovering from this state without waiting for the time to pass or force quitting the Application and restarting it.

The Excel-specific Application.Wait also suffers from this issue, except that the app will not show as not responding in Task Manager in this case. It will still be just as unresponsive to the user.

A way to circumvent this problem is calling DoEvents in a loop, as other people have already pointed out. However, this comes with another issue. Because the application will try to execute VBA code as fast as possible, DoEvents is called at the maximum achievable rate essentially saturating the CPU completely on that single thread, leading to high, unnecessary CPU and power usage and potentially slowing down other more important tasks in the UI.

This is why the best way of getting VBA to pause execution is a combination of both methods, using DoEvents to stay responsive and Sleep to avoid maximum CPU usage. An implementation of this is presented in the following.

Universal Solution

The following code implements a WaitSeconds Sub that will pause execution for a given amount of seconds while avoiding all of the above-mentioned issues.
It can be used like this:

Sub UsageExample()
    WaitSeconds 3.5
End Sub

This will pause the macro for 3.5 seconds, without freezing the application or causing excessive CPU usage. For this to work, just copy the following code to the top of any standard code module.

#If Mac Then
    #If VBA7 Then
        Private Declare PtrSafe Sub USleep Lib "/usr/lib/libc.dylib" Alias "usleep" (ByVal dwMicroseconds As Long)
    #Else
        Private Declare Sub USleep Lib "/usr/lib/libc.dylib" Alias "usleep" (ByVal dwMicroseconds As Long)
    #End If
#Else
    #If VBA7 Then
        Private Declare PtrSafe Sub MSleep Lib "kernel32" Alias "Sleep" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
    #Else
        Private Declare Sub MSleep Lib "kernel32" Alias "Sleep" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
    #End If
#End If

'Sub providing a Sleep API consistent with Windows on Mac (argument in ms)
'Authors: Guido Witt-Dörring, https://stackoverflow.com/a/74262120/12287457
'         Cristian Buse,      https://stackoverflow.com/a/71176040/12287457
Public Sub Sleep(ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
    #If Mac Then 'To avoid overflow issues for inputs > &HFFFFFFFF / 1000:
        Do While dwMilliseconds And &H80000000
            USleep &HFFFFFED8
            If dwMilliseconds < (&H418937 Or &H80000000) Then
                dwMilliseconds = &H7FBE76C9 + (dwMilliseconds - &H80000000)
            Else: dwMilliseconds = dwMilliseconds - &H418937: End If
        Loop
        Do While dwMilliseconds > &H418937
            USleep &HFFFFFED8: dwMilliseconds = dwMilliseconds - &H418937
        Loop
        If dwMilliseconds > &H20C49B Then
            USleep (dwMilliseconds * 500& Or &H80000000) * 2&
        Else: USleep dwMilliseconds * 1000&: End If
    #Else
        MSleep dwMilliseconds
    #End If
End Sub

'Sub pausing code execution without freezing the app or causing high CPU usage
'Author: Guido Witt-Dörring, https://stackoverflow.com/a/74387976/12287457
Public Sub WaitSeconds(ByVal seconds As Single)
    Dim currTime As Single:  currTime = Timer()
    Dim endTime As Single:   endTime = currTime + seconds
    Dim cacheTime As Single: cacheTime = currTime
    Do While currTime < endTime
        Sleep 15: DoEvents: currTime = Timer() 'Timer function resets at 00:00!
        If currTime < cacheTime Then endTime = endTime - 86400! '<- sec per day
        cacheTime = currTime
    Loop
End Sub

_{[1] More information on the cross-platform Sleep included in the above code can be found here and here.}

If application freezing is not an issue, e.g. for very short delays or if user interaction is undesired, the best solution is to call Sleep directly. This is why, in the above solution, it is also declared as Public. Note that Sleep takes its argument as milliseconds.

'Does freeze application
Sub UsageExample()
    Sleep 3.5 * 1000
End Sub

Important Notes:

1. The time precision of the Timer() function used in this solution is better on Windows, however, the claim in the documentation, that resolution on Mac is one second, is wrong. Even on Mac, the resolution is better than 0.1 seconds. Still, you shouldn’t expect a resolution much better than ~0.1 seconds from this solution! WaitSeconds 1 will wait around 1.015 ± 0.02 seconds on Windows.

2. If you plan on using this to pause your code for long periods of time, or even in a case like OP is dealing with, you are most likely not using the correct tool for the job. If you are using Excel, consider looking into Application.OnTime. (See the following section)

Alternatives to Pausing VBA Execution and Better Solution for OP

The question op has asked does not lead to the best solution for his problem. It’s an XY-Problem.

It is not actually necessary to have VBA code running non-stop in the background in order to recalculate a Workbook every second. This is a typical example of a task that can also be achieved with Application.OnTime.

A detailed guide including a copy-paste solution to recalculate any Range at any desired time interval ≥ 1s is available here.

The big advantage of using Application.OnTime for this is that it avoids a continuously running macro and hence allows the use of other macros or other features that are unavailable while macros are running.

Meta-Analysis of All Other Solutions in This Thread

The reason I even wrote this answer is that all other solutions presented in this thread (at the time this post was written) have at least one of the following two severe drawbacks:

1. They freeze the calling application completely, causing it to no longer respond to user input, or
2. They cause excessive CPU usage (100% on the calling application’s thread) by calling DoEvents in a loop.

Additionally, many of the proposed solutions have other issues:

1. Some only work on Windows

2. Some only work in Excel

3. Some have an intrinsic imprecision of more than one second

4. Some have other problems or even bugs

The following table will give a short overview of all the solutions in this thread and their features

Legend

Overview

Other issues

Public Function CheckWholeNumber(Number As Double) As Boolean
    If Number - Fix(Number) = 0 Then
        CheckWholeNumber = True
    End If
End Function

Public Sub TimeDelay(Days As Double, Hours As Double, Minutes As Double, Seconds As Double)
    If CheckWholeNumber(Days) = False Then
        Hours = Hours + (Days - Fix(Days)) * 24
        Days = Fix(Days)
    End If
    If CheckWholeNumber(Hours) = False Then
        Minutes = Minutes + (Hours - Fix(Hours)) * 60
        Hours = Fix(Hours)
    End If
    If CheckWholeNumber(Minutes) = False Then
        Seconds = Seconds + (Minutes - Fix(Minutes)) * 60
        Minutes = Fix(Minutes)
    End If
    If Seconds >= 60 Then
        Seconds = Seconds - 60
        Minutes = Minutes + 1
    End If
    If Minutes >= 60 Then
        Minutes = Minutes - 60
        Hours = Hours + 1
    End If
    If Hours >= 24 Then
        Hours = Hours - 24
        Days = Days + 1
    End If
    Application.Wait _
    ( _
        Now + _
        TimeSerial(Hours + Days * 24, Minutes, 0) + _
        Seconds * TimeSerial(0, 0, 1) _
    )
End Sub

example:

call TimeDelay(1.9,23.9,59.9,59.9999999)

hopy you enjoy.

edit:

here’s one without any additional functions, for people who like it being faster

Public Sub WaitTime(Days As Double, Hours As Double, Minutes As Double, Seconds As Double)
    If Days - Fix(Days) > 0 Then
        Hours = Hours + (Days - Fix(Days)) * 24
        Days = Fix(Days)
    End If
    If Hours - Fix(Hours) > 0 Then
        Minutes = Minutes + (Hours - Fix(Hours)) * 60
        Hours = Fix(Hours)
    End If
    If Minutes - Fix(Minutes) > 0 Then
        Seconds = Seconds + (Minutes - Fix(Minutes)) * 60
        Minutes = Fix(Minutes)
    End If
    If Seconds >= 60 Then
        Seconds = Seconds - 60
        Minutes = Minutes + 1
    End If
    If Minutes >= 60 Then
        Minutes = Minutes - 60
        Hours = Hours + 1
    End If
    If Hours >= 24 Then
        Hours = Hours - 24
        Days = Days + 1
    End If
    Application.Wait _
    ( _
        Now + _
        TimeSerial(Hours + Days * 24, Minutes, 0) + _
        Seconds * TimeSerial(0, 0, 1) _
    )
End Sub

Complete Guide to Pausing VBA Execution

Background Information and Explanation

All Microsoft Office applications run VBA code in the same thread as the main user interface. This means, as long as the VBA code doesn’t call DoEvents, code execution freezes the entire application (It will show as «not responding» in Task-Manager!). This includes calls to the Sleep API function. Once Sleep is called, there is no way of recovering from this state without waiting for the time to pass or force quitting the Application and restarting it.

The Excel-specific Application.Wait also suffers from this issue, except that the app will not show as not responding in Task Manager in this case. It will still be just as unresponsive to the user.

A way to circumvent this problem is calling DoEvents in a loop, as other people have already pointed out. However, this comes with another issue. Because the application will try to execute VBA code as fast as possible, DoEvents is called at the maximum achievable rate essentially saturating the CPU completely on that single thread, leading to high, unnecessary CPU and power usage and potentially slowing down other more important tasks in the UI.

This is why the best way of getting VBA to pause execution is a combination of both methods, using DoEvents to stay responsive and Sleep to avoid maximum CPU usage. An implementation of this is presented in the following.

Universal Solution

The following code implements a WaitSeconds Sub that will pause execution for a given amount of seconds while avoiding all of the above-mentioned issues.
It can be used like this:

Sub UsageExample()
    WaitSeconds 3.5
End Sub

This will pause the macro for 3.5 seconds, without freezing the application or causing excessive CPU usage. For this to work, just copy the following code to the top of any standard code module.

#If Mac Then
    #If VBA7 Then
        Private Declare PtrSafe Sub USleep Lib "/usr/lib/libc.dylib" Alias "usleep" (ByVal dwMicroseconds As Long)
    #Else
        Private Declare Sub USleep Lib "/usr/lib/libc.dylib" Alias "usleep" (ByVal dwMicroseconds As Long)
    #End If
#Else
    #If VBA7 Then
        Private Declare PtrSafe Sub MSleep Lib "kernel32" Alias "Sleep" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
    #Else
        Private Declare Sub MSleep Lib "kernel32" Alias "Sleep" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
    #End If
#End If

'Sub providing a Sleep API consistent with Windows on Mac (argument in ms)
'Authors: Guido Witt-Dörring, https://stackoverflow.com/a/74262120/12287457
'         Cristian Buse,      https://stackoverflow.com/a/71176040/12287457
Public Sub Sleep(ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
    #If Mac Then 'To avoid overflow issues for inputs > &HFFFFFFFF / 1000:
        Do While dwMilliseconds And &H80000000
            USleep &HFFFFFED8
            If dwMilliseconds < (&H418937 Or &H80000000) Then
                dwMilliseconds = &H7FBE76C9 + (dwMilliseconds - &H80000000)
            Else: dwMilliseconds = dwMilliseconds - &H418937: End If
        Loop
        Do While dwMilliseconds > &H418937
            USleep &HFFFFFED8: dwMilliseconds = dwMilliseconds - &H418937
        Loop
        If dwMilliseconds > &H20C49B Then
            USleep (dwMilliseconds * 500& Or &H80000000) * 2&
        Else: USleep dwMilliseconds * 1000&: End If
    #Else
        MSleep dwMilliseconds
    #End If
End Sub

'Sub pausing code execution without freezing the app or causing high CPU usage
'Author: Guido Witt-Dörring, https://stackoverflow.com/a/74387976/12287457
Public Sub WaitSeconds(ByVal seconds As Single)
    Dim currTime As Single:  currTime = Timer()
    Dim endTime As Single:   endTime = currTime + seconds
    Dim cacheTime As Single: cacheTime = currTime
    Do While currTime < endTime
        Sleep 15: DoEvents: currTime = Timer() 'Timer function resets at 00:00!
        If currTime < cacheTime Then endTime = endTime - 86400! '<- sec per day
        cacheTime = currTime
    Loop
End Sub

_{[1] More information on the cross-platform Sleep included in the above code can be found here and here.}

If application freezing is not an issue, e.g. for very short delays or if user interaction is undesired, the best solution is to call Sleep directly. This is why, in the above solution, it is also declared as Public. Note that Sleep takes its argument as milliseconds.

'Does freeze application
Sub UsageExample()
    Sleep 3.5 * 1000
End Sub

Important Notes:

1. The time precision of the Timer() function used in this solution is better on Windows, however, the claim in the documentation, that resolution on Mac is one second, is wrong. Even on Mac, the resolution is better than 0.1 seconds. Still, you shouldn’t expect a resolution much better than ~0.1 seconds from this solution! WaitSeconds 1 will wait around 1.015 ± 0.02 seconds on Windows.

2. If you plan on using this to pause your code for long periods of time, or even in a case like OP is dealing with, you are most likely not using the correct tool for the job. If you are using Excel, consider looking into Application.OnTime. (See the following section)

Alternatives to Pausing VBA Execution and Better Solution for OP

The question op has asked does not lead to the best solution for his problem. It’s an XY-Problem.

It is not actually necessary to have VBA code running non-stop in the background in order to recalculate a Workbook every second. This is a typical example of a task that can also be achieved with Application.OnTime.

A detailed guide including a copy-paste solution to recalculate any Range at any desired time interval ≥ 1s is available here.

The big advantage of using Application.OnTime for this is that it avoids a continuously running macro and hence allows the use of other macros or other features that are unavailable while macros are running.

Meta-Analysis of All Other Solutions in This Thread

The reason I even wrote this answer is that all other solutions presented in this thread (at the time this post was written) have at least one of the following two severe drawbacks:

1. They freeze the calling application completely, causing it to no longer respond to user input, or
2. They cause excessive CPU usage (100% on the calling application’s thread) by calling DoEvents in a loop.

Additionally, many of the proposed solutions have other issues:

1. Some only work on Windows

2. Some only work in Excel

3. Some have an intrinsic imprecision of more than one second

4. Some have other problems or even bugs

The following table will give a short overview of all the solutions in this thread and their features

Legend

Overview

Other issues