timer.Simple, broken?

[Hell Strike]

I'm either doing something completely wrong or the wiki entry is broken

I just got into coding a few hours ago, and I'm toying around with the most simple of commands trying to make different bits of code, and I decided to try out the timer, but I can't get it to work. It doesn't time, it just displays the message as soon as it can, instead of waiting 5 (or whatever delay is set) seconds.

Msg("Hello World! \n")

myname="Ben"
Msg(myname .. "\n")
Msg("Hello, "..myname..". How are you today?\n")

timer.Simple(5, Msg("This message will display after 5 seconds!"))

So then i tried copying the code directly from the wiki page on it:
[URL]http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=Timer.Simple[/URL]

but, that wasn't correct either, the sample says

timer.Simple(5, Msg, "This message will display after 5 seconds!")

The message doesn't work in the sample.

I've also tried setting the delay to 5000 in case it was measured in milliseconds, it still printed the text to the console instantly.

So, Lua Gurus, what am I doing wrong here?

[DarKSunrise]

The wiki example seems to work fine. Where are you running the code? Are you on singleplayer or multiplayer?

[Hell Strike]

Singleplayer.

[DarKSunrise]

The timer will only run in singleplayer while you are not in the ESC-menu, could that be the problem?

[Hell Strike]

Wait now it's working
I'm having trouble making it repeat though

local Counter = 100
repeat
timer.Simple(5, Msg, "This message will display after 5 seconds!\n") 
Counter = Counter-1
until(Counter==1)

it just waits 5 seconds, and then prints the message 100 times.
what's wrong here?

[editline]04:33AM[/editline]

[QUOTE=DarKSunrise;24056031]The timer will only run in singleplayer while you are not in the ESC-menu, could that be the problem?[/QUOTE]

Yeah I'm pretty sure I just forgot to unpause it :v:

but then again that wouldn't cause it to display the message instantly, right?

[DarKSunrise]

You are basically telling it to print it 100 times after five seconds have passed. If you want to print it 100 times every five seconds, you need to use timer.Create.
[lua]timer.Create("Some unique name for the timer", 5, 100, MsgN, "Test")[/lua]
MsgN is the same as Msg, but it automatically adds "\n" to the end.

[Hell Strike]

I was actually hoping to get something to print once every 5 seconds, would i just use this?

timer.Create("Some unique name for the timer", 5, 1, MsgN, "Test" )

also could I use this for functions?
like this:

timer.Create("Some unique name for the timer", 5, 1, myFunction)

also, thanks for that MsgN tip (:

Nevermind, after toying around with it I found out that your example was actually what I wanted

I can't get it to work with a function though

local Counter = 100
repeat
timer.Create("Timer1", 5, 100, sayings() )
Counter = Counter-1
until(Counter==1)

It just runs the sayings function 100 times instantly and then 100 times after that it shows "Timer Error: attempt to call a nil value" every 5 seconds.

Wait why am i using a repeat command?

Okay I got rid of the repeat command, and now it runs my "sayings" function once, and then gives a timer error every 5 seconds.
Maybe I shouldn't be learning Lua at 5am :v:

Okay I looked at the Wiki (like i should've :3) and then i found out I was supposed to put the function inbetween the timer and the timers end.
so here's my finished code. doesn't server a purpose, I just wanted to see if I could make something annoying.

timer.Create("Timer1", 3, 0, function()

number=math.random(1,37)
if number == 1 then
    Msg("Frostbite Canyon\n")
elseif number == 2 then
    Msg("Rinsecloud Iceveins\n")
elseif number == 3 then
    Msg("Washboard Righter Vonsugarpill\n")
elseif number == 4 then
    Msg("Tom Araya\n")
elseif number == 5 then
    Msg("Kerry King\n")
elseif number == 6 then
    Msg("Jeff Hanneman\n")
elseif number == 7 then
    Msg("Drummer of Slayer\n")
elseif number == 8 then
    Msg("Jeremy Mckinnon\n")
elseif number == 9 then
    Msg("Lydia Thomson\n")
elseif number == 10 then
    Msg("Roy Mayorga\n")
elseif number == 11 then
    Msg("James Michael Root\n")
elseif number == 12 then
    Msg("Chris Elliot\n")
elseif number == 13 then
    Msg("Jim Morrison\n")
elseif number == 14 then
    Msg("Rick Moranis\n")
elseif number == 15 then
    Msg("Vinny Paul\n")
elseif number == 16 then
    Msg("Metal Mike\n")
elseif number == 17 then
    Msg("Hebrew Jimi\n")
elseif number == 18 then
    Msg("Reign Reign Go Away\n")
elseif number == 19 then
    Msg("Shura 9x000\n")
elseif number == 20 then
    Msg("Bowel Movement\n")
elseif number == 21 then
    Msg("When the Jizz Hits The Fan\n")
elseif number == 22 then
    Msg("Jeremiah the Urban Fecal Horder\n")
elseif number == 23 then
    Msg("Antis Gilamigo\n")
elseif number == 24 then
    Msg("Siesta Fineass\n")
elseif number == 25 then
    Msg("Sultan Anticuous Shrubcutter\n")
elseif number == 26 then
    Msg("Righthand Feral Sunkiss\n")
elseif number == 27 then
    Msg("Schlep Funstack\n")
elseif number == 28 then
    Msg("Erectus Lampikatius\n")
elseif number == 29 then
    Msg("Gorland Napalmeranian\n")
elseif number == 30 then
    Msg("Rathepon Ourselves\n")
elseif number == 31 then
    Msg("Arbison Skyflake\n")
elseif number == 32 then
    Msg("Holly Longride\n")
elseif number == 33 then
    Msg("Venetian Clitoris\n")
elseif number == 34 then
    Msg("Antagonistic\n")
elseif number == 35 then
    Msg("Jimi Hertrod\n")
elseif number == 36 then
    Msg("Corporal Seedweather\n")
else
    Msg("James' Ambiguous Rectalfire\n")
end
end )

thanks for your help DarKSunrise!

also is there a better way to do my code, besides the massive if then else statement?
I googled it and I read somwhere that Lua doesn't have the visual basic equivalent of a case statement. is that true? and if so, are there any less 'messy' alternatives?

[DarKSunrise]

You could do something like this:
[lua]local sayings = {
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet",
"Another sentence",
"And third"
};

local function myfunction()
MsgN(table.Random(sayings));
end

timer.Create("My timer", 5, 0, myfunction);[/lua]
Or this. It's actually a better way unless you need to call the function elsewhere as well:
[lua]local sayings = {
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet",
"Another sentence",
"And third"
};

timer.Create("My timer", 5, 0, function()
MsgN(table.Random(sayings));
end);[/lua]

[QUOTE=Hell Strike;24056117]I googled it and I read somwhere that Lua doesn't have the visual basic equivalent of a case statement. is that true? and if so, are there any less 'messy' alternatives?[/QUOTE]
That's true. It always depends on the situation, but if you need to print a random message it would be better to get a random value from a table.

If you need to do something more complex, you'll probably have to use if/else-statements.

[Hell Strike]

Thank you! You've been so helpful.:keke: