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Samuel Gomes edited this page Nov 8, 2022 · 1 revision

SLEEP pauses the program indefinitely or for a specified number of seconds, program is unpaused when the user presses a key or when the specified number of seconds has passed.

Syntax

SLEEP [seconds]

  • Seconds are an optional INTEGER value. If there is no parameter, then it waits for a keypress.
  • Any user keypress will abort the SLEEP time.
  • SLEEP does NOT clear the keyboard buffer so it can affect INKEY$, INPUT, INPUT$ and LINE INPUT reads.
  • Use an INKEY$ keyboard buffer clearing loop when an empty keyboard buffer is necessary.
  • SLEEP allows other programs to share the processor time during the interval.

Example(s)

CLS 
PRINT "Press a key..."
SLEEP
PRINT "You pressed a key, now wait for 2 seconds."
SLEEP 2
PRINT "You've waited for 2 seconds."
PRINT "(or you pressed a key)"

Press a key...
You pressed a key, now wait for 2 seconds.
You've waited for 2 seconds.
(or you pressed a key)

Explanation: SLEEP without any arguments waits until a key is pressed, next SLEEP statement uses the argument 2 which means that it will wait for 2 seconds, any number of seconds can be specified.

See Also

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