Tickers

This Go code demonstrates the use of the time package to create a ticker and handle periodic events. Let's go through it with inline comments:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "time"
)

func main() {
    // Creating a ticker 'ticker' that ticks every 500 milliseconds
    ticker := time.NewTicker(500 * time.Millisecond)

    // Creating a channel 'done' for signaling when to stop the ticker
    done := make(chan bool)

    // Launching a goroutine to handle ticker events
    go func() {
        for {
            select {
            // If a signal is received on the 'done' channel, exit the goroutine
            case <-done:
                return
            // If a tick is received on the 'ticker.C' channel, print the time of the tick
            case t := <-ticker.C:
                fmt.Println("Tick at", t)
            }
        }
    }()

    // Sleeping for 1600 milliseconds to allow several ticks to occur
    time.Sleep(1600 * time.Millisecond)

    // Stopping the ticker
    ticker.Stop()

    // Signaling the 'done' channel to stop the goroutine
    done <- true

    fmt.Println("Ticker stopped")
}

Output

Tick at 2024-01-23 00:19:05.3026099 +0530 IST m=+0.514576101
Tick at 2024-01-23 00:19:05.7982714 +0530 IST m=+1.010237601
Tick at 2024-01-23 00:19:06.2956784 +0530 IST m=+1.507644601
Ticker stopped

Explanation:

1. package main: Indicates that this Go file belongs to the main executable package.

2. import (...): Imports necessary packages, including "fmt" for formatting and printing, and "time" for handling time-related operations.

3. func main() { ... }: The main function, where the execution of the program begins.

4. ticker := time.NewTicker(500 * time.Millisecond): Creates a ticker named 'ticker' that ticks every 500 milliseconds.

5. done := make(chan bool): Creates a channel named 'done' for signaling when to stop the ticker.

6. go func() { ... }(): Launches a goroutine to handle ticker events. Inside the goroutine, it uses a select statement to wait for either a signal on the 'done' channel (indicating to stop) or a tick on the 'ticker.C' channel.

7. time.Sleep(1600 * time.Millisecond): Sleeps for 1600 milliseconds to allow several ticks to occur.

8. ticker.Stop(): Stops the ticker, preventing further ticks.

9. done <- true: Sends a signal to the 'done' channel, indicating that the goroutine should exit.

10. fmt.Println("Ticker stopped"): Prints a message indicating that the ticker has been stopped.

In summary, this code demonstrates how to use a ticker to generate periodic events and how to gracefully stop the ticker by signaling a goroutine using channels. The select statement is used to handle multiple channels in a non-blocking manner.