javascript: pause setTimeout();

Question

You could wrap window.setTimeout like this, which I think is similar to what you were suggesting in the question:

var Timer = function(callback, delay) {
    var timerId, start, remaining = delay;

    this.pause = function() {
        window.clearTimeout(timerId);
        remaining -= Date.now() - start;
    };

    this.resume = function() {
        start = Date.now();
        window.clearTimeout(timerId);
        timerId = window.setTimeout(callback, remaining);
    };

    this.resume();
};

var timer = new Timer(function() {
    alert("Done!");
}, 1000);

timer.pause();
// Do some stuff...
timer.resume();

Something like this should do the trick.

function Timer(fn, countdown) {
    var ident, complete = false;

    function _time_diff(date1, date2) {
        return date2 ? date2 - date1 : new Date().getTime() - date1;
    }

    function cancel() {
        clearTimeout(ident);
    }

    function pause() {
        clearTimeout(ident);
        total_time_run = _time_diff(start_time);
        complete = total_time_run >= countdown;
    }

    function resume() {
        ident = complete ? -1 : setTimeout(fn, countdown - total_time_run);
    }

    var start_time = new Date().getTime();
    ident = setTimeout(fn, countdown);

    return { cancel: cancel, pause: pause, resume: resume };
}

No. You'll need cancel it (clearTimeout), measure the time since you started it and restart it with the new time.

A slightly modified version of Tim Downs answer. However, since Tim rolled back my edit, I've to answer this myself. My solution makes it possible to use extra arguments as third (3, 4, 5...) parameter and to clear the timer:

function Timer(callback, delay) {
    var args = arguments,
        self = this,
        timer, start;

    this.clear = function () {
        clearTimeout(timer);
    };

    this.pause = function () {
        this.clear();
        delay -= new Date() - start;
    };

    this.resume = function () {
        start = new Date();
        timer = setTimeout(function () {
            callback.apply(self, Array.prototype.slice.call(args, 2, args.length));
        }, delay);
    };

    this.resume();
}

As Tim mentioned, extra parameters are not available in IE lt 9, however I worked a bit around so that it will work in oldIE's too.

Usage: new Timer(Function, Number, arg1, arg2, arg3...)

function callback(foo, bar) {
    console.log(foo); // "foo"
    console.log(bar); // "bar"
}

var timer = new Timer(callback, 1000, "foo", "bar");

timer.pause();
document.onclick = timer.resume;

"Pause" and "resume" don't really make much sense in the context of setTimeout, which is a one-off thing. You might want to pause a chained series of setTimeout calls, in which case just don't schedule the next one (perhaps cancel the one that's outstanding via clearTimeout, as below). But setTimeout itself doesn't loop, there's nothing to pause and resume.

If you mean setInterval then no, you can't pause it, you can only cancel it (clearInterval) and then re-schedule it again. Details of all of these in the Timers section of the spec.

// Setting
var t = setInterval(doSomething, 1000);

// Pausing (which is really stopping)
clearInterval(t);
t = 0;

// Resuming (which is really just setting again)
t = setInterval(doSomething, 1000);

The Timeout was easy enough to find a solution for, but the Interval was a little bit trickier.

I came up with the following two classes to solve this issues:

function PauseableTimeout(func, delay){
    this.func = func;

    var _now = new Date().getTime();
    this.triggerTime = _now + delay;

    this.t = window.setTimeout(this.func,delay);

    this.paused_timeLeft = 0;

    this.getTimeLeft = function(){
        var now = new Date();

        return this.triggerTime - now;
    }

    this.pause = function(){
        this.paused_timeLeft = this.getTimeLeft();

        window.clearTimeout(this.t);
        this.t = null;
    }

    this.resume = function(){
        if (this.t == null){
            this.t = window.setTimeout(this.func, this.paused_timeLeft);
        }
    }

    this.clearTimeout = function(){ window.clearTimeout(this.t);}
}

function PauseableInterval(func, delay){
    this.func = func;
    this.delay = delay;

    this.triggerSetAt = new Date().getTime();
    this.triggerTime = this.triggerSetAt + this.delay;

    this.i = window.setInterval(this.func, this.delay);

    this.t_restart = null;

    this.paused_timeLeft = 0;

    this.getTimeLeft = function(){
        var now = new Date();
        return this.delay - ((now - this.triggerSetAt) % this.delay);
    }

    this.pause = function(){
        this.paused_timeLeft = this.getTimeLeft();
        window.clearInterval(this.i);
        this.i = null;
    }

    this.restart = function(sender){
        sender.i = window.setInterval(sender.func, sender.delay);
    }

    this.resume = function(){
        if (this.i == null){
            this.i = window.setTimeout(this.restart, this.paused_timeLeft, this);
        }
    }

    this.clearInterval = function(){ window.clearInterval(this.i);}
}

These can be implemented as such:

var pt_hey = new PauseableTimeout(function(){
    alert("hello");
}, 2000);

window.setTimeout(function(){
    pt_hey.pause();
}, 1000);

window.setTimeout("pt_hey.start()", 2000);

This example will set a pauseable Timeout (pt_hey) which is scheduled to alert, "hey" after two seconds. Another Timeout pauses pt_hey after one second. A third Timeout resumes pt_hey after two seconds. pt_hey runs for one second, pauses for one second, then resumes running. pt_hey triggers after three seconds.

Now for the trickier intervals

var pi_hey = new PauseableInterval(function(){
    console.log("hello world");
}, 2000);

window.setTimeout("pi_hey.pause()", 5000);

window.setTimeout("pi_hey.resume()", 6000);

This example sets a pauseable Interval (pi_hey) to write "hello world" in the console every two seconds. A timeout pauses pi_hey after five seconds. Another timeout resumes pi_hey after six seconds. So pi_hey will trigger twice, run for one second, pause for one second, run for one second, and then continue triggering every 2 seconds.

OTHER FUNCTIONS

• clearTimeout() and clearInterval()

  pt_hey.clearTimeout(); and pi_hey.clearInterval(); serve as an easy way to clear the timeouts and intervals.

• getTimeLeft()

  pt_hey.getTimeLeft(); and pi_hey.getTimeLeft(); will return how many milliseconds till the next trigger is scheduled to occur.