# Determine Timer Elapsed or Remaining

**URL:** <https://community.openhab.org/t/determine-timer-elapsed-or-remaining/5724>\
**Category:** Beginners\
**Created:** [January 4, 2016, 5:10am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/determine-timer-elapsed-or-remaining/5724 "2016-01-04T05:10:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![markrad](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/markrad/32/15225_2.png) [@markrad](https://community.openhab.org/u/markrad)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 5:10am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/determine-timer-elapsed-or-remaining/5724/1 "2016-01-04T05:10:45Z")

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I have a scenario where upon I would like the outcome of a rule to differ depending upon how long a Timer has to run. I have not established a mechanism to determine how long a Timer has remaining. Did I miss something or do I need to create a DateTime variable simply to track when I expect the Timer to expire?

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**Author:** ![rlkoshak](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/rlkoshak/32/75251_2.png) [@rlkoshak](https://community.openhab.org/u/rlkoshak)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/determine-timer-elapsed-or-remaining/5724/2 "2016-01-04T19:42:52Z")

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You haven’t missed anything. There is no way to tell how much longer a timer has before it runs. You will have to keep track of that separately.

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**Author:** ![markrad](https://community.openhab.org/user_avatar/community.openhab.org/markrad/32/15225_2.png) [@markrad](https://community.openhab.org/u/markrad)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://community.openhab.org/t/determine-timer-elapsed-or-remaining/5724/3 "2016-01-05T00:56:18Z")

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I was pretty sure that was going to be the answer but thanks for the confirmation.