Is it possible to save/store the time between a key press and another?

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For instance I write a character in a textbox approx. every 5 seconds.
I want to save the time between the keys so be able to replay it like in a video, where i can display those characters with the same time intervals.
I don't know if I'm explaining myself well enough, please let me know.

I tried to read some tutorials about timer and timer ticks, but I didn't quite get the hang of it. Maybe if someone knows of a simplified tutorial and can share a link it would be great or write anything in an answer. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Posted 11-Feb-11 3:09am

LighthouseCall

Updated 11-Feb-11 3:10am

v2

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2 solutions

Solution 2

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace TimerTicks
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        long CurTickValue, Difference, CompTime;
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
        private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            CurTickValue = Environment.TickCount;
            Difference = CurTickValue - CompTime;
        }
        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            timer1.Start();
            CompTime = Environment.TickCount;
        }


        private void Grid1_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.A)
            {
                //CurTickValue = Environment.TickCount;
                textBox1.Text = (Difference.ToString());
                listBox1.Items.Add(Difference.ToString());
            }
        }

        private void button1_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            CurTickValue = Environment.TickCount;
               
        }

    }
}

This works after setting the properties of the Form, Button and Timer.

Posted 11-Feb-11 8:00am

LighthouseCall

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Nish Nishant · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-11T03:12:00

Handle one of the key events and store the time in a dictionary. Later on it should be easy to go through the dictionary and figure out the intervals between each keystroke.

Here's some example code (note that you need to add code to handle keys like Backspace - the example does not do that):

C#

struct CharTime
{
    public TimeSpan TimeSpan;

    public Char Char;
}

Collection<CharTime> charTimes = new Collection<CharTime>();

DateTime mostRecent = DateTime.MinValue;

private void textBox1_KeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
{
    if (mostRecent == DateTime.MinValue)
    {
        charTimes.Add(new CharTime()
          { Char = e.KeyChar, TimeSpan = TimeSpan.Zero });
    }
    else
    {
        charTimes.Add(new CharTime()
          { Char = e.KeyChar, TimeSpan = DateTime.Now - mostRecent });
    }

    mostRecent = DateTime.Now;
}

private void buttonReplay_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();
    worker.DoWork += worker_DoWork;
    worker.RunWorkerAsync();
}

void worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    this.Invoke((Action)(() => { textBox1.Text = String.Empty; }));

    foreach (var item in charTimes)
    {
        if (item.TimeSpan != TimeSpan.Zero)
        {
            Thread.Sleep(item.TimeSpan);
        }

        this.Invoke((Action)(() => { textBox1.Text += item.Char; }));
    }
}