Deleting a running function and starting a new one?

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

For example, I have a timer function that activates when a time value is changed, something like

timeValue.Changed:Connect(function(change)
   timer(change)
end)

However, I have no idea how to do it so that when timeValue is changed, it checks if there is an existing “timer()” function running, it completely stops “timer()” function and starts a new “timer()” function on the new timeValue.

Is it possible to do this? Thanks!

#2

Yeah, it’s possible!
I made something like this:

local Value = game:GetService("ReplicatedStorage").Value

local function printtime(thetime)
	print("Value changed to ".. thetime)
end

Value.Changed:Connect(function(change)
	printtime(change)
end)

Remember: If you are writing this in server script then you have to change the value via Server, not the client!
The client can detect what server changes but server cannot detect what client changes.

#3

Um what’s the difference of this from what I wrote, and I’m trying to stop the old running function everytime Value is changed and run a new “printtime()” function. I don’t think this will work.

#4

I have no idea what is inside the timer() function but judging by its name I think I can guess it has some kind of while loop or a connection to RunService.Heartbeat for a timer?

Now if I was right that there is a while loop or a Heartbeat connection inside timer() you can just have a variable at the top that you set to false when starting a new timer

A simple example I can get off the top of my head is:

local runTimer = false

function timer()
    if runTimer then -- check if one is running and stop it
        runTimer = false
        -- you'll want to wait for the timer to end here maybe with a event or just task.wait I'll use task.wait for simplicity
        task.wait(.3)
    end

    while runTimer do
        -- timer stuff here
        task.wait(.3)
    end

    runTimer = true -- set it to true for when we start the next one
end
#5

The timer function is like this:

function timer(seconds)
   for i = 1, seconds, 1 do
      --blah
      task.wait(1)
   end
end

And what I mean is that I want to stop an existing function and start a new one. ( For example while the timer() is running, I pause the function and start another timer() function since the “seconds” parameter will be different everytime I run the timer() function.

#6

simply just check for the timer value before calling the func:

timeValue.Changed:Connect(function(change)
if change <= 0 then 
-- the timer will start if it hasn't started yet
   timer(change)
else
-- Already counting
    end
end)
#7

Now it’s just stuck at the else statement, doing nothing, not even counting the time.
Actually is it possible to use things like coroutine or something? I heard of them but I don’t really get how to use them in this scenario…

#8

My solution should actually work here just in a different way.

you could still have a variable at the top that says if a timer is running and check whenever you start the function
Using this it would look something like this

local TimerRunning = false

function timer(seconds)
    if TimerRunning then
        TimerRunning = false
        task.wait(1) --// you could use a bindable event that fires every time it loops but this will work
    end

    TimerRunning = true

    for i = 1, seconds, 1 do
        if TimerRunning == false then
            break --// break out of the timer if we tell it to stop
        end
        --blah
        task.wait(1)
    end
end

As for coroutines you should be using one so that the timer doesn’t stop code from running(if there was code after you called timer() it would have to wait for the timer to end before continuing) but they won’t help you in stopping the function.

#9

The problem is if I fire a new function after doing timer() I will have to wait until timer() is done and then it will go on to the next line.

#10

I would use bindableevents for this because the .Event thing returns a rbxscriptconnection which allows you to :Disconnect() the event.