Thread: Timer.scheduleAtFixedRate() is scheduling itself to run on the wrong day

I've run into the oddest problem which really isn't making any sense.

Timer timer = new Timer();
 
//7 days
long patchNotesSleep = 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000;
 
TimerTask task = new TimerTask() {public void run() {}};
 
//Schedule at 14:55 on the next Thursday
Date nextDate = calcPatchNotesStartDate();
 
timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(task, nextDate, patchNotesSleep);
 
System.out.println("Should start at " + nextDate);
System.out.println("Patch Notes scheduled to check at " + new Date(task.scheduledExecutionTime()));

What I'm expecting is for the two print statements to return the same dates. What I'm actually getting is this.

Should start at Thu Mar 14 14:55:00 EDT 2013
Patch Notes scheduled to check at Thu Mar 07 13:55:00 EST 2013

I've tried throwing breakpoints and comparing the actual date objects, just in case something weird was going on with the print. They are different dates.

Source code for calcPatchNotesStartDate()

Originally Posted by Norm

Also posted at: Timer.scheduleAtFixedRate() is scheduling itself to run on the wrong day - Dev Shed



You don't say which date you expect to be printed.

I'm expecting it to start on the date returned by calcPatchNotesStartDate(), since that is the date I am passing in to the scheduleAtFixedRate method.

The source code for calcPatchNotesStartDate() is in the pastebin link at the bottom of the opening post called "Source code for calcPatchNotesStartDate()". I didn't want to clutter the post with a longer bit of code.

Originally Posted by Norm

Also posted at: Timer.scheduleAtFixedRate() is scheduling itself to run on the wrong day - Dev Shed



You don't say which date you expect to be printed.

I'm expecting it to start on the date returned by calcPatchNotesStartDate(), since that is the date I am passing in to the scheduleAtFixedRate method.

The source code for calcPatchNotesStartDate() is in the pastebin link at the bottom of the opening post called "Source code for calcPatchNotesStartDate()". I didn't want to clutter the post with a longer bit of code.

Originally Posted by Norm

Read the API doc for the scheduledExecutionTime() method and see if it does what you expect.

I see. Apparently I was misreading what that method did. Thanks.