In this short tutorial we will explore the process of creating a timer, which will move an object when the timer expires.

Start by creating a new Flash file, add a movieclip to the stage and assign an instance name of objectMC.

Once the movieclip is created, the next step is to create the timer code.

var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(1000, 1);
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, timerHandler);
myTimer.start();

That code creates a Timer instance, assigns an event handler and kicks off the timer countdown. The next step is to create the timer handler function.

function timerHandler(evt:TimerEvent):void
{
  objectMC.x = 200;
  objectMC.y = 200;
}

Now when you test the movie the object will sit on the stage and once the timer is complete the object will move.

What happens if you want to stop the timer? Well that is simple, just call the stop(); method of the Timer class.

myTimer.stop();

You have completed the code required for this example. Feel free to expand on the example and begin using timers in your own code.

Here is the complete code for this example:

// Requires a movieclip with the instance name "objectMC" to be on the stage

var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(1000, 1);
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, timerHandler);
myTimer.start();

function timerHandler(evt:TimerEvent):void
{
  objectMC.x = 200;
  objectMC.y = 200;
}