Delay() function in C++

Hello everyone, In this post, we will learn about the delay() function in C++. There can be many instances when we need to create a delay in our programs. C++ provides us with an easy way to do so. We can use a delay() function for this purpose in our code. This function is imported from the “dos.h” header file in C++. We can run the code after a specific time in C++ using delay() function.

delay() function in C++

Now let us understand the syntax for delay() function. It is as follows:

void delay(unsigned int milliseconds);

Explanation:

• Here, void suggests that this function returns nothing.
• ‘delay’ is the function name.
• The function takes one parameter which is unsigned integer.

Create a delay in time in a C++ program

The key point to note here is that this delay() function accepts parameter in milliseconds. That is if we want to create a 1-second delay in our program we have to pass 1000 as a parameter to the function.

Example of delay() in C++

#include<iostream.h>
#include<dos.h>   //for delay()
#include<conio.h>   //for getch()

int main()
{
    clrscr();
    int n;
    cout<<"Enter the delay (in seconds) you want to make after giving input."<<endl;
    cin>>n;
    delay(n*1000);
    cout<<"This has been printed after "<< n <<" seconds delay";
    getch();
    return 0;
}

OUTPUT:

Enter the delay (in seconds) you want to make after giving input.
5
This has been printed after 5 seconds delay.

How it worked:

As you can see in the program, we are taking input from the user ( To know: Taking only integer input in C++ ) and passing it to the delay function after multiplying it with 1000 to convert the seconds into milliseconds.
“dos.h” header file has been included so that a call to delay() function can be made.

NOTE: Your compiler must have dos.h header file in it.