Test if a Timer is running?

[Tragic]

I have some code that needs a Timer that I would like to activate when certain objects enter a script zone....

The problem I have is that if you are holding a bunch of objects or w/e the onEnter and onExit stuff triggers a heap of times... meaning I get an error saying "the timer already exists" as it trys to spawn it a bunch of times.

So the question is how can I test to see if the timer exists and if it dose.. to not do anything?

sudoCode

function onObjectLeaveScriptingZone(zone, obj)
    if zone == getObjectFromGUID('1a6c3b') then --Zone I want to test enter and exits
        local timerID = self.getGUID()..math.random(9999999999999)
        IF TIMER IS NOT RUNNING THEN --<---- How cand I do this line? 
            timerSpawn = true
            Timer.create({identifier=timerID, function_name="countItems", function_owner=self,
            repetitions=5, delay=1})
        END
    end
end

I know I could spawn a zillion timers with unique names but would prefer to do it this way.

PS - Is there a way to put a callback.. so it runs a function after the timer has stopped its repetitions?

[MrStump]

There's only create and destroy, no check I'm afraid. But hacks get you where you need to go.

If you put a destroy before a create, even if there is nothing to destroy, the destroy will not error or cause any issue. So this would allow you to "start" the same time a dozen times at once and only have it end once. However it has the downside of restarting the timer.

To get around this, you can just use a variable bool. Do an if timerRunning then check. If not, start the timer and timerRunning=true. When the timer function triggers, timerRunning=nil. There, now the timer can only start if the timer isn't running. Check timerRunning at any time to see if that timer is running.