This is an automatically generated page and cannot be edited directly. Text in Composite pages, (URLs starting with 'routine' or 'syntax') can be edited by clicking on the link labeled 'in context', and editing the text there.

Exit this popup by pressing <Escape>, or clicking on X or on the background.

sleep
Combined from primary sources listed below.

In Date§

See primary documentation in context for sub sleep 

sub sleep($seconds = Inf --> Nil)

Attempt to sleep for the given number of $seconds. Returns Nil on completion. Accepts Int, Num, Rat, or Duration types as an argument since all of these also do Real.

sleep 5;                # Int
sleep 5.2;              # Num
sleep (5/2);            # Rat
sleep (now - now + 5);  # Duration

It is thus possible to sleep for a non-integer amount of time. For instance, the following code shows that sleep (5/2) sleeps for 2.5 seconds and sleep 5.2 sleeps for 5.2 seconds:

my $before = now;
sleep (5/2);
my $after = now;
say $after-$before;  # OUTPUT: «2.502411561␤»

$before = now;
sleep 5.2;
$after = now;
say $after-$before;  # OUTPUT: «5.20156987␤»