Loop with delay

I'm fairly new to Unity and I was trying to create a primitive city simulation with a population counter that would update its text component every two seconds.

I've tried Coroutines and InvokeRepeating but none of them seemed to work as I wanted to (there was a 2 second delay at first but after that the text component updated every frame).

Attempt I.

Code (CSharp):

1. void Update()
2.     {
3.         StartCoroutine(DisplayPopulation());
4.     }
5.  
6.     IEnumerator DisplayPopulation()
7.     {
8.         populationText.text = population.ToString();
9.         population += 100;
10.         yield return new WaitForSeconds(2);
11.     }

Attempt II.

Code (CSharp):

1. void Update()
2.     {
3.         StartCoroutine(DisplayPopulation());
4.     }
5.  
6.     IEnumerator DisplayPopulation()
7.     {
8.         while (true)
9.         {
10.             populationText.text = population.ToString();
11.             population += 100;
12.             yield return new WaitForSeconds(2);
13.         }
14.     }

Attempt III.

Code (CSharp):

1. void Update()
2.     {
3.         InvokeRepeating("PopulationCount", 2f, 2f);
4.     }
5.  
6.     void PopulationCount()
7.     {
8.         populationText.text = population.ToString();
9.         population += 100;
10.     }

I've probably just understood these poorly and I apologise for that but I've been unable to find a proper solution for this (or at least one that I would be able to understand).

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

 

Attempt 1 would just wait a couple of seconds before ending the coroutine, however, you are starting a new routine every frame.

Attempt 2 would work if you started the routine just once, say in the Start(). You are currently starting a new routine every frame in Update() just as with 1.

Attempt 3 has the same problem again. You are setting an instruction to invoke the method every frame. Do it just once in Awake() or Start() and it will work.

 

Moved the Coroutine to the Start() and it works as it should, thanks!

 

Start() can be a coroutine, so you could just do this is you like;

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. private WaitForSeconds _waitTwoSecs = new WaitForSeconds(2);
3.  
4. private IEnumerator Start()
5. {
6.     while (true)
7.     {
8.         populationText.text = population.ToString();
9.         population += 100;
10.         yield return _waitTwoSecs;
11.     }
12. }