Delaying Operations in WPF

Delaying an operation in WPF is essential for enhancing user experience and ensuring smooth transitions. One common scenario is adding a delay before navigating to a new window.

To achieve this, Thread.Sleep is often used, as shown in the provided code snippet. However, blocking the UI thread with Thread.Sleep results in unresponsive UI while the delay is in progress. This manifests as a brief display of the message "two mins delay" before navigating to the next page.

To address this limitation, it's recommended to use asynchronous techniques like DispatcherTimer, Task.Delay, or async/await.

Method 1: Using a DispatcherTimer

The DispatcherTimer class provides a way to execute an action after a specified interval.

tbkLabel.Text = "two seconds delay";

var timer = new DispatcherTimer { Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2) };
timer.Start();
timer.Tick  = (sender, args) =>
{
    timer.Stop();
    var page = new Page2();
    page.Show();
};

Method 2: Using Task.Delay

Task.Delay is a method that returns a task that completes after a specified delay.

tbkLabel.Text = "two seconds delay";

Task.Delay(2000).ContinueWith(_ =>
{
    var page = new Page2();
    page.Show();
});

Method 3: Using Async/Await (Requires .NET 4.5 or higher)

Async/await syntax provides a more elegant and readable way to handle asynchronous operations.

public async void TheEnclosingMethod()
{
    tbkLabel.Text = "two seconds delay";

    await Task.Delay(2000);
    var page = new Page2();
    page.Show();
}

By using these asynchronous techniques, the UI thread remains responsive, and the user sees the "two seconds delay" message for the entire delay period before transitioning to the new page seamlessly.