Thread run() resets value of variables! WHY!

Question

Hello.. i am having a VERY frustrating problem here. I have used a thread to create a stopwatch. I want to be able to play, pause and stop. I can get the play to start counitng, the stop to stop it...but..wheni pause...it pauses, yet when i resume the stopwatch, it starts again from 00:00:00:0
II have four int variables.
private int fractionOfSeconds;
private int seconds;
private int minutes;
private int hours;
in the constructor of the thread I am setting them to value 0;
Stopwatch()
fractionOfSeconds = 0;
seconds = 0;
minutes = 0;
hours = 0;
In the run() function I have it increment the values of those variables and pass the result to a label.
public void run()
isPlaying = true;
isPaused = false;
isStopped = false;
try
while(!isStopped && !isPaused)
sleep(100);
fractionOfSeconds++;
if(fractionOfSeconds % 10 == 0 && fractionOfSeconds != 0)
fractionOfSeconds -= 10;
seconds++;
if(seconds % 60 == 0 && seconds != 0)
seconds -= 60;
minutes++;
if(minutes % 60 == 0 && minutes != 0)
minutes -= 1;
hours++;
secondsString = "" + seconds;
if(seconds < 10)
secondsString = "0" + seconds;
minutesString = "" + minutes;
if(minutes < 10)
minutesString = "0" + minutes;
hoursString = "" + hours;
if(hours < 10)
hoursString = "0" + hours;
transportControl.setTimerLabel(hoursString + ":" + minutesString + ":" + secondsString + ":" + fractionOfSeconds);
catch(Exception e)
LOGICALLY speaking..unless I am missing somehing really big, the stopwatch variables should be set to ZERO when the stopwatch class is contrsucted..and after that everytime i run the thread using the run() /start() function the variables should keep increasing..and every time i runit again it should keep counting from where it left off before.
but it doenst. it resets the variables to zero EVERYTIME!!!
Plese.anybody?what am i missing here??
thanx in advance

Answer 1

You can build a stop watch using one of the Timer classes.
- Set the timer to tick every 55 milliseconds (18.2 Hertz) if your on an Intel based machine this is the best resolution you'll get.
- When you start the stopwatch, record the currentMillis
- when the timer ticks use that value and the currentMillis to determing the elapsed time.
- when you pause the stopwatch shut the timer down and record the elapsed time so far
- when you unpause the stopwatch restart the timer
You probably don't even need a separate thread since the timer provide one for you. Note that times set in timers and sleep are not going to be the same as the time actually elapsed since these things run at very low priority.