Is it possible to hop to the next line midway through a delay?

[deckerz]

I am programming an Arduino Uno sketch with some delays at various points throughout the sketch. I am wondering if it is possible to advance the sketch to the next line at some point midway through the delay so that I wouldn't always have to wait for the full delay to play out?
I was hoping I could press a button that could hop me to the next line of the code.

[anon73444976]

No, that's not possible.

The trick is not to use the delay function.

Please take a look at the blink without delay example in the IDE.

[Idahowalker]

File|Examples|02.Digital| BlikeWithoutDelay <<< take a look. Delay() only stops the CPU from doing things. NOP's; NOP (code) - Wikipedia.

[PaulRB]

Replace

delay(5000);

with

unsigned long startTime = millis();
while (millis() - startTime < 5000 && digitalRead(puttonPin) == HIGH);

(that's assuming the input pin goes LOW when the button is pressed, which is normal)

[StefanL38]

@anon73444976

The trick is not to use the delay function.

Example-code for timing based on millis() easier to understand through the use of example-numbers / avoiding delay()

non-blocking timing. Execute code only from time to time. There are a lot of different ways to learn programming. This thread wants to add another approach that is different to the yet existing ones. UPDATE 06.01.2023 if you are mainly interested in applying non-blocking timing you can do a quick read of this short tutorial / demonstration If you are intersted in understanding the details how it works go on reading here. I use an everyday analogon in this post to explain the basic principle …

Be the change you want to see in the world
best regards Stefan

[StefanL38]

@PaulRB

unsigned long startTime = millis();
while (millis() - startTime < 5000 && digitalRead(puttonPin) == HIGH);

with a back-translation to a normal worded functionality

there are two conditions that must be true to keep the microcontroller in the delaying loop:

1. less than 5 seconds time have passed by

millis() - startTime < 5000

actual time - StartTime < 5000 milliseconds

2. button is unpressed (button needs to be used with input_PULLUP and connected to ground)

As long as these two conditions are true the microcontroller stays inside the while-loop which does nothing else than checking the two conditions

as soon as

1. button is pressed (which means IO-pin gets connected to ground and IO-pin detects "LOW"
   or
2. five seconds have passed by
   the looping ends

Be the change you want to see in the world
best regards Stefan