Is there a command_type that will only run once?

why is it not suitable for init() ?

You can log the time into a global variable using GlobalVariableSet().. this will store the time and you can work off of that. Alternatively, static variables are an option..

init()
{
//...
   static datetime only_once = TimeCurrent()
//...
}

start()
{
//...
   if(TimeCurrent() > only_once) //..dont do whatever
//...

then again if youre doing that, why not just put the code in init() ..Id be hard pressed to find code thats not suitable for init() somehow

I would declare the datetime var globaly but not as in GlobalVariableSet(), that brings up a question I been meaning to ask for a while, when describing global variables on the forum, how to differentiate between the kind of gloabal variable within a mql4 program code, and the other kind of global variable as declared using GlobalVariableSet() ? In other words how to avoid confusion when talking about global variables ?

Anway I would decare datetime variable globably so it can be used in other functions, then initialize it to the current time in init()

int start ()
{

//< Routine that run only once >```````````````````````//<          >
static int iFlag = 0 ; if ( iFlag == 0 ) { iFlag = 1 ; //<          >
                                                       //<          >
    //< Code to run once >                             //<          >
        Alert ( "Hi!" )                              ; //<          >
    //  ...                                            //<          >
    //</Code to run once >                             //<          >
                                                     } //<          >
//</Routine that run only once >```````````````````````//<          >
 
}
 
     

Dam spammer. This exact post appears on many boards.