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Function Repository Resource:

 PauseUntil

Source Notebook

Pause evaluation until a given time

Contributed by: Daniele Gregori

ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][string]

pauses until a given time, specified as String.

ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][time]

pauses until a given TimeObject.

ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][date]

pauses until a given DateObject.

Details and Options

While the basic function Pause halts code execution for a certain number of seconds, ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"] halts it until a certain given time occurs.
Possible arguments of ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"] are: TimeObject, DateObject, or String, the last of which is automatically interpreted as either a "Time", "Date", or "DateTime".
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"] accepts the following options:
TimeZoneAutomaticthe time zone used in all the internal evaluations
"PauseInformation"Falsewhether to Echo the time to be paused
"Periodicity"Noneconsider the input as a periodically repeating time
There is no output for ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"], but the time to be waited for can be echoed by setting the option "PauseInformation" to True.
The values for the option "Periodicity" can be:
Nonepause until only the specified time
npause until the next occurrence of the given time repeated in the future every n days
{n,unit}pause until the next occurrence of the given time repeated in the future every n integer units of time
The unit in the "Periodicity" option value can be one of the following: "Year", "Quarter", "Month", "Week", "Day", "Hour", "Minute", "Second", "Weekday", "Weekend", Monday through Sunday, "EndOfMonth", "BeginningOfMonth" and "BusinessDay".
Normally, entering as input past times leads to failure, unless the option "Periodicity" is set. Then a past date or time is interpreted as periodically repeating every n*unit time in the future and the evaluation pauses until the next occurrence of such periodic date.
A potential application of ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"] is for setting up scheduled tasks running at fixed times, especially on remote servers using the .
Other use cases include API rate limiting, external coordination, simulations or demonstrations.

Examples

Basic Examples (2) 

Pause evaluation until a certain time:

In[1]:=
AbsoluteTiming[ ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][Now + Quantity[10, "Seconds"]]]
Out[1]=

Pause until a certain date-time:

In[2]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"]["13 sep 2025 12:00:30"]
In[3]:=
DateString[]
Out[3]=

Scope (3) 

Specify the time zone:

In[4]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"]["19:01 JST"]
In[5]:=
DateString[TimeZone -> "Asia/Tokyo"]
Out[5]=

Pause until a time specified by TimeObject:

In[6]:=
timeobj = TimeObject[{12, 1, 30}]
Out[6]=
In[7]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][timeobj]
In[8]:=
DateString[]
Out[8]=

Pause until a time specified as a DateObject:

In[9]:=
dateobj = DatePlus[Now, {10, "Second"}]
Out[9]=
In[10]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][dateobj]
In[11]:=
DateString[]
Out[11]=

Options (4) 

TimeZone (1) 

Specify the TimeZone as an option:

In[12]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][TimeObject[{7, 30}], TimeZone -> "America/Los_Angeles"]
In[13]:=
DateString[TimeZone -> "America/Los_Angeles"]
Out[13]=

PauseInformation (1) 

Sometimes it can be useful to get information, through Echo, on the total seconds to be waited:

In[14]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"]["16:15 pm", "PauseInformation" -> True]
In[15]:=
DateString[]
Out[15]=

Periodicity (2) 

A past date argument is interpreted as a periodic date recurring cyclically in the future.

Pause until the next occurrence of a certain time recurring every day in the future:

In[16]:=
pastdate = DateObject[Yesterday, TimeObject[{12, 4}]]
Out[16]=
In[17]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][pastdate, "Periodicity" -> 1]
In[18]:=
DateString[]
Out[18]=

Pause until the next occurrence of a certain time recurring every n units of time:

In[19]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][pastdate, "Periodicity" -> {1, "Minute"}]
In[20]:=
DateString[]
Out[20]=

Applications (2) 

PauseUntil[time] can be used to implement scheduled tasks.

For example, collect SunPosition data every 15 minutes from 1 pm to 2 pm:

In[21]:=
sundata = {};
In[22]:=
time = TimeObject["1 pm"]
Out[22]=
In[23]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][time] Do[ AppendTo[sundata, TimeObject[] -> SunPosition[]]; ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][time, "Periodicity" -> {15, "Minute"}], 4]; sundata = Append[sundata, TimeObject[] -> SunPosition[]] // Association
Out[25]=

Plot the collected data points and their fit curve:

In[26]:=
ListPlot[sundata, PlotFit -> "Quadratic", PlotStyle -> PointSize[Large], ImageSize -> Large]
Out[26]=

Properties and Relations (2) 

If the specified TimeObject lies in the latter part of the day, PauseUntil[time] is equivalent to Pause[QuantityMagnitude[DateDifference[Now,time,"Seconds"]]]:

In[27]:=
timeforward = TimeObject[{12, 20}]
Out[27]=
In[28]:=
pauseforward = QuantityMagnitude@DateDifference[Now, timeforward, "Seconds"]
Out[28]=
In[29]:=
Pause[pauseforward]
In[30]:=
DateString[]
Out[30]=

If the specified TimeObject lies in the earlier part of the day PauseUntil[time] is equivalent to 86400-QuantityMagnitude[DateDifference[time,Now,"Seconds"]]:

In[31]:=
timebackword = TimeObject[{12, 10}]
Out[31]=
In[32]:=
pausebackword = 86400 - QuantityMagnitude@ DateDifference[timebackword, Now, "Seconds"]
Out[32]=
In[33]:=
DatePlus[Now, {pausebackword, "Second"}]
Out[33]=

Possible Issues (4) 

If you use as argument a string to be interpreted, you should also specify the timezone in it (but not necessarily the option TimeZone):

In[34]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"]["19:11", TimeZone -> "Asia/Tokyo", "PauseInformation" -> True]
Out[34]=
In[35]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"]["19:11 JST", "PauseInformation" -> True]
In[36]:=
DateString[TimeZone -> "Asia/Tokyo"]
Out[36]=

Some strings cannot be correctly interpreted:

In[37]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"]["tomorrow night"]
Out[37]=

The specified date object must belong to the future:

In[38]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][Yesterday]
Out[38]=

The DateDifference with Now must be larger than about 30 milliseconds:

In[39]:=
dateobj = DatePlus[Now, {0.03, "Second"}];
In[40]:=
ResourceFunction["PauseUntil"][dateobj]
Out[40]=

Publisher

Daniele Gregori

Requirements

Wolfram Language 12.0 (April 2019) or above

Version History

  • 1.0.0 – 15 September 2025

Related Resources

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