java: run a function after a specific number of seconds

Example of using javax.swing.Timer

Timer timer = new Timer(3000, new ActionListener() {
  @Override
  public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
    // Code to be executed
  }
});
timer.setRepeats(false); // Only execute once
timer.start(); // Go go go!

This code will only be executed once, and the execution happens in 3000 ms (3 seconds).

As camickr mentions, you should lookup "How to Use Swing Timers" for a short introduction.

new java.util.Timer().schedule( 
        new java.util.TimerTask() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                // your code here
            }
        }, 
        5000 
);

EDIT:

javadoc says:

After the last live reference to a Timer object goes away and all outstanding tasks have completed execution, the timer's task execution thread terminates gracefully (and becomes subject to garbage collection). However, this can take arbitrarily long to occur.

Something like this:

// When your program starts up
ScheduledExecutorService executor = Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor();

// then, when you want to schedule a task
Runnable task = ....    
executor.schedule(task, 5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);

// and finally, when your program wants to exit
executor.shutdown();

There are various other factory methods on Executor which you can use instead, if you want more threads in the pool.

And remember, it's important to shutdown the executor when you've finished. The shutdown() method will cleanly shut down the thread pool when the last task has completed, and will block until this happens. shutdownNow() will terminate the thread pool immediately.