Timers (or how to do `setInterval` and `clearInterval` in `Elixir` / `Erlang`?)

[nelsonic]

I'm making a few million API requests to get some data dwyl/who#17
and need to control the request frequency to avoid hitting rate limits ... ⏳ (5k/hour -> 120k/day -> 3.65m/month )
In JS-land I would just use setInterval to define the timeframe for executing the API requests
and clearInterval once they were complete.
Not had to do this in Elixir before, so doing a bit of googling ... 🔍

Reading:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43892784/what-are-the-equivalent-of-settimeout-and-setinterval-in-elixir

The recommended Erlang function is: timer.apply_interval/4

:timer.apply_interval(1000, IO, :puts, ["weee"])

https://www.erlang.org/doc/apps/stdlib/timer.html

Need to write myself a mini example ...

Side note: notice how this question on StackOverflow that has clearly been useful to other people got 4 downvotes:

yes, it doesn't conform to the narrow SO question guidelines, but it's still a useful question/answer!
SO is just not a very welcoming (to beginners) environment. 😞
This in a nutshell is why ChatGPT which just repackages the web is so popular: it doesn't "judge" your ("stupid") questions!

[nelsonic]

Combining with Task: https://dev.to/felipearaujos/the-power-of-elixir-task-module-54np

[ndrean]

Maybe not what you are after but about rate limiting as controlled server-side. But I am not sure one should do this server-side...

https://elixirforum.com/t/how-to-rate-limit-a-public-live-view/68081

[nelsonic]

I'm using a Task.start combined with :timer.sleep and it works fine. 👌 Crude but functional. 😉