Simplify Time Management in Your Codebase with Modern JavaScript Timer & Interval Techniques

Boost productivity, manage complex animations, and improve UX with well-crafted timer and interval strategies

Photo by Alex Lion on Unsplash

JavaScript timers offer powerful functionality for scheduling repetitive tasks, executing callbacks periodically, and controlling animation sequences. Implementation pitfalls exist, however, leading to poor performance or memory leaks.

In this article, we discuss best practices and contemporary approaches for utilizing JavaScript timers and intervals.

Timer Fundamentals

Two types of timers serve distinct purposes in JavaScript: setTimeout() and setInterval(). Use setTimeout() for one-shot delayed execution, and setInterval() for continuous periodic invocation.

Timeout Example

Schedule a single call to display a notification five seconds post-initialization.

const showNotification = () => {
  alert('Welcome back!');
};
setTimeout(() => showNotification(), 5000);

Interval Example

Maintain a constantly updating clock throughout a web app session.