jquery - how do you run a function every 5 seconds in javascript

I am trying to create a javascript which if I click on a div1, I need load_data1() function to refresh every 5 seconds. If the user clicks on div2 or div3, I need load_data1() function to stop. As the code below, when I click on the div1, load_data1() function runs after 5 second and stops, it does not run after that, any ideas what I might be missing here?

 $(document).ready(function(){

$.ajaxSetup({ cache: false });

    var timeout;
     function timeout_init() {
        timeout=setTimeout('load_data1()', 5000);
        return timeout;
    }



    $("#div1").click(function() {
        timeout_init();

        });

    $("#div2").click(function() {
            clearTimeout(timeout);
            load_data2();
    });

    $("#div3").click(function() {
             clearTimeout(timeout);
             load_data3();

    });

});

Answer

you want to use setInterval() instead of setTimeout which only fires the one time, setInterval will keep firing until you clear it