# pause

The `pause` statement is used to suspend execution of a USE script for a specified time.

## Syntax

**`pause`***`delaytime`*

## Details

The *delaytime* parameter is the number of milliseconds to wait before continuing. A value of 0 is allowed, in which case no delay will occur.

The `pause` statement may be useful in cases where an external data source imposes some form of rate limiting on the number of queries that can be serviced in a given time-frame, or to slow down execution at critical points when debugging a long or complex script.

## Example

{% hint style="info" %}
This example makes use of script parameters which are provided when USE is executed. For more information on script parameters please refer to the [Extract introduction](https://olddocs.exivity.io/2.3.1/diving-deeper/extract).
{% endhint %}

```
var first = ${ARG_1}
var last = ${ARG_2}
var last += 1
var x = ${first}

# Retrieve a number of files from http://server.local/?.dat where ? is a number
# Wait for 1 second between each file
loop slurp {
    var url = http://server.local/datafiles/${x}.dat
    set http_savefile data/${x}.png
    print Getting datafile ${x}
    http GET ${url}
    if (${HTTP_STATUS_CODE} == 200) {
        print 200 OK
    }
    if (${HTTP_STATUS_CODE} == 404) {
        print Data file ${x} missing on server
    }
    var x += 1
    if (${x} == ${last}) {
        exit_loop
    }
        pause 1000   # Wait for 1 second
}
print ${x} files were downloaded
terminate
```