Qt 4.7: QEventLoop Class Reference

Qt Reference Documentation

# QEventLoop Class Reference

The QEventLoop class provides a means of entering and leaving an event loop. More...

     #include <QEventLoop>

Inherits: QObject.

- List of all members, including inherited members

## Public Types

enum | ProcessEventsFlag { AllEvents, ExcludeUserInputEvents, ExcludeSocketNotifiers, WaitForMoreEvents, DeferredDeletion }
flags | ProcessEventsFlags

## Public Functions

| QEventLoop ( QObject * parent = 0 )
| ~QEventLoop ()
int | exec ( ProcessEventsFlags flags = AllEvents )
void | exit ( int returnCode = 0 )
bool | isRunning () const
bool | processEvents ( ProcessEventsFlags flags = AllEvents )
void | processEvents ( ProcessEventsFlags flags, int maxTime )
void | wakeUp ()

- 29 public functions inherited from QObject

## Public Slots

void | quit ()

- 1 public slot inherited from QObject

### Additional Inherited Members

- 1 property inherited from QObject
- 1 signal inherited from QObject
- 5 static public members inherited from QObject
- 7 protected functions inherited from QObject

## Detailed Description

The QEventLoop class provides a means of entering and leaving an event loop.

At any time, you can create a QEventLoop object and call exec() on it to start a local event loop. From within the event loop, calling exit() will force exec() to return.

See also QAbstractEventDispatcher.

## Member Type Documentation

### enum QEventLoop::ProcessEventsFlag
flags QEventLoop::ProcessEventsFlags

This enum controls the types of events processed by the processEvents() functions.

Constant | Value | Description
--- | --- | ---
`QEventLoop::AllEvents` | `0x00` | All events. Note that DeferredDelete events are processed specially. See QObject::deleteLater() for more details.
`QEventLoop::ExcludeUserInputEvents` | `0x01` | Do not process user input events, such as ButtonPress and KeyPress. Note that the events are not discarded; they will be delivered the next time processEvents() is called without the ExcludeUserInputEvents flag.
`QEventLoop::ExcludeSocketNotifiers` | `0x02` | Do not process socket notifier events. Note that the events are not discarded; they will be delivered the next time processEvents() is called without the ExcludeSocketNotifiers flag.
`QEventLoop::WaitForMoreEvents` | `0x04` | Wait for events if no pending events are available.
`QEventLoop::DeferredDeletion` | `0x10` | deprecated - do not use.

The ProcessEventsFlags type is a typedef for QFlags<ProcessEventsFlag>. It stores an OR combination of ProcessEventsFlag values.

See also processEvents().

## Member Function Documentation

### QEventLoop::QEventLoop ( QObject * parent = 0 )

Constructs an event loop object with the given parent.

### QEventLoop::~QEventLoop ()

Destroys the event loop object.

### int QEventLoop::exec ( ProcessEventsFlags flags = AllEvents )

Enters the main event loop and waits until exit() is called. Returns the value that was passed to exit().

If flags are specified, only events of the types allowed by the flags will be processed.

It is necessary to call this function to start event handling. The main event loop receives events from the window system and dispatches these to the application widgets.

Generally speaking, no user interaction can take place before calling exec(). As a special case, modal widgets like QMessageBox can be used before calling exec(), because modal widgets use their own local event loop.

To make your application perform idle processing (i.e. executing a special function whenever there are no pending events), use a QTimer with 0 timeout. More sophisticated idle processing schemes can be achieved using processEvents().

See also QApplication::quit(), exit(), and processEvents().

### void QEventLoop::exit ( int returnCode = 0 )

Tells the event loop to exit with a return code.

After this function has been called, the event loop returns from the call to exec(). The exec() function returns returnCode.

By convention, a returnCode of 0 means success, and any non-zero value indicates an error.

Note that unlike the C library function of the same name, this function does return to the caller -- it is event processing that stops.

See also QCoreApplication::quit(), quit(), and exec().

### bool QEventLoop::isRunning () const

Returns true if the event loop is running; otherwise returns false. The event loop is considered running from the time when exec() is called until exit() is called.

See also exec() and exit().

### bool QEventLoop::processEvents ( ProcessEventsFlags flags = AllEvents )

Processes pending events that match flags until there are no more events to process. Returns true if pending events were handled; otherwise returns false.

This function is especially useful if you have a long running operation and want to show its progress without allowing user input; i.e. by using the ExcludeUserInputEvents flag.

This function is simply a wrapper for QAbstractEventDispatcher::processEvents(). See the documentation for that function for details.

### void QEventLoop::processEvents ( ProcessEventsFlags flags, int maxTime )

Process pending events that match flags for a maximum of maxTime milliseconds, or until there are no more events to process, whichever is shorter. This function is especially useful if you have a long running operation and want to show its progress without allowing user input, i.e. by using the ExcludeUserInputEvents flag.

Notes:

- This function does not process events continuously; it returns after all available events are processed.
- Specifying the WaitForMoreEvents flag makes no sense and will be ignored.

### void QEventLoop::quit ()`[slot]`

Tells the event loop to exit normally.

Same as exit(0).

See also QCoreApplication::quit() and exit().

### void QEventLoop::wakeUp ()

Wakes up the event loop.

See also QAbstractEventDispatcher::wakeUp().