How to use timer control in WPF.

In my last WPF project, I need to update a control with respect to time. In this application I want to display recent update but as we know there is no timer control in WPF. So, I tried to implement timer in WPF by using the DispatchTimer class.

Here, I am going to create a WPF application that has a Items control like Combobox , Listbox etc. In this case I am trying with Combobox control. This control is being updated every second with current time.  First of all we create instance of DispatcherTimer class as

DispatcherTimer dispatcherTimer = new DispatcherTimer();

To use DispatcherTimer class you have to include System.Windows.Threading namespace in your application.

Whenever DispatcherTimer is started we have to handled its Tick and Interval events as in the following code snippet

 dispatcherTimer.Tick += new EventHandler(dispatcherTimer_Tick);

//you can set here interval as you want,in this case interval is set every 5 seconds

dispatcherTimer.Interval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 5);

Then call the start method to start DispatcherTimer as

dispatcherTimer.Start();

//Note: add all above said code during load time.

Then on the Tick event handler update a control (ComboBox in this case) and add the current time. Set the selected item of the ComboBox to the currently added item and make sure this item is visible on Item View.

ComboBox1.Items.Add(DateTime.Now.Hour.ToString() + ":" + DateTime.Now.Second.ToString());

CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested();

ComboBox1.Items.MoveCurrentToLast();

ComboBox1.SelectedItem = ComboBox1.Items.CurrentItem;

ComboBox1.ScrollIntoView(ComboBox1.Items.CurrentItem);