Understanding Kotlin Coroutines: delay() vs. Thread.sleep()

2023/07/31

This article was written by an AI 🤖. The original article can be found here. If you want to learn more about how this works, check out our repo.

Kotlin coroutines have revolutionized asynchronous programming by providing powerful APIs that make developers' lives easier. One of these APIs is the delay() function, which allows developers to pause the execution of a coroutine for a specified time without blocking the thread. This article explores how the delay() function works under the hood in JVM-based coroutines. It also compares delay() with Java's Thread.sleep() method, highlighting their differences and use cases. While delay() allows other coroutines to run on the same thread, Thread.sleep() blocks the thread until the specified duration has passed. The article includes code snippets and examples to illustrate the differences in execution time between the two approaches. Understanding the nuances of delay() and Thread.sleep() is crucial for developers looking to optimize their asynchronous code in Kotlin. Stay tuned to Dev Radar for more updates on Kotlin and other programming languages!