What is the difference between a timeout and an interval in Javascript?

Posted on August 13, 2021April 13, 2022 | by rajeshkumar

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setTimeout( ) Method

The setTimeout() method sets a timer which executes a function or specified piece of code once after the timer expires. The function is only executed once. It returns a positive integer value which identifies the timer created by the call to setTimeout(); this value can be passed to clearTimeout() to cancel the timeout.

Syntax: –
setTimeout (function, milliseconds, para1, para2);
Ex: – var timeoutID = setTimeout(show, 2000);

clearTimeout( ) Method

The clearTimeout() method cancels a timeout previously established by calling setTimeout(). The ID value returned by setTimeout() is used as the parameter for the clearTimeout() method.

Syntax: – clearTimeout (timeoutID);

Ex: – clearTimeout(timeoutID);

setInterval( ) Method

The setInterval() method repeatedly calls a function or executes a code snippet, with a fixed time delay between each call. It returns an interval ID that uniquely identifies the interval, so you can remove it later by calling clearInterval().

Syntax: – setInterval (function, milliseconds, para1, para2);

Ex: – var intervalID = setInterval(show, 2000);