How to schedule tasks in Java to run for repeated fixed-delay execution, beginning at the specified time

One of the methods in the Timer class is the void schedule(TimerTask task, Date firstTime, long period) method. This method schedules tasks for repeated fixed-delay execution, beginning at the specified time.

In fixed-delay execution, each execution is scheduled with respect to the original execution time of the preceding execution. If an execution is delayed for a particular reason (case in point, garbage collection), the subsequent executions will be delayed as well.

Declaration −The java.util.Timer.schedule(TimerTask task, Date firstTime, long period) is declared as follows −

public void schedule(TimerTask task, Date firstTime, long period)

Here, task is the task to be scheduled, firstTime is the first time at which the task is executed and period is the time in milliseconds between successive task executions.

There are few exceptions thrown by the schedule(Timertask task, Date firstTime, long period) method. They are as follows −

Let us see an example showing how to schedule tasks in Java to run for repeated fixed-delay execution, beginning at the specified time −

Example

 Live Demo

import java.util.*;
class MyTask extends TimerTask {
   public void run() {
      System.out.println("Task is running");
   }
}
public class Example {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      Timer timer = new Timer(); // creating timer
      TimerTask task = new MyTask(); // creating timer task
      timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(task,new Date(),2000);
      // scheduling the task at the specified time at fixed-delay
   }
}

Output

Task is running
Task is running
Task is running
Task is running
Task is running