How to stop timer while debugging

Question

So I setup a System.Timers.Timer and have a handler for the Elapsed event. It works as expected.

However, if I want to debug the code that is called within the elapsed handler; the timer will continue generating additional events. Thus, I can't single step through the code because timer events stack up on top of each other.

The current workaround is to call Stop on the timer upon entering the handler and Start when leaving. However, that is not how the system is supposed to work so that is a temporary fix. I was wondering if there is a way to configure the debugger to halt the timer while debugging.

Answer 1

If you want you can wrap this into a #if DEBUG directive or you can use System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached.

Answer 2

In your Timer.Elapsed event handler, maybe you can use some preprocessor directives to include code that stops and starts (or disables and enables) the timer:

    private static void OnTimedEvent(object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
#if DEBUG
        (source as Timer).Stop();
        // or
        (source as Timer).Enabled = false;
#endif

        // do your work

#if DEBUG
        (source as Timer).Start();
        // or
        (source as Timer).Enabled = true;
#endif
    }