How to trigger a timer tick programmatically?

Question

Let's say I have a Windows Forms timer configured with a 10 second (10k ms) interval:

myTimer.Interval = 10000;

I want to start it and fire off the Tick event right away:

myTimer.Start();
myTimer_Tick(null, null);

The last line works but is there a better or more appropriate way?

Answer 1

The only thing I'd do differently is to move the actual Tick functionality into a separate method, so that you don't have to call the event directly.

myTimer.Start();
ProcessTick();

private void MyTimer_Tick(...)
{
    ProcessTick();
}

private void ProcessTick()
{
    ...
}

Primarily, I'd do this as direct calling of events seems to me to be a Code Smell - often it indicates spagetti structure code.

Answer 2

There are at least 4 different "Timers" in .NET. Using System.Threading you can get one that specifically allows you to set the initial delay.

var Timer = new Timer(Timer_Elapsed, null, 0, 10000);

There are benefits to using the different timers and here is a good article discussing them all.