Ticker should not execute if already running

I have some function that has to run periodically. I have used a ticker for this. But if the ticker is already running, and the time interval passes again, it should not execute again.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "time"
)

func main() {
    ticker := time.NewTicker(3*time.Second)
    flag := 0
    defer ticker.Stop()
    for {
        select {
        case t := <-ticker.C:
            flag = flag + 1
            if (flag % 2 ==0 ) {
                time.Sleep(time.Second*4)
            }   
            fmt.Println("Current time: ", t)
        }
    }
}

https://play.golang.org/p/2xV2MYInn4I

In the playground, the ticker prints every 3 seconds, but every even turn of the ticker the job takes more time than the interval. I expect it to not run then and drop those ticks.

How do I do this?

sleeping inside the same goroutine merely delays execution. ticker meanwhile runs in a separate goroutine. So even if you used a global variable to maintain an execution state - it will not give you your desired result with sleep. However migrating the whole "sleeping" in a separate goroutine yields:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "time"
)

type Tick struct {
    ticker *time.Ticker
    executing bool
}

func somethingYouWantToDo(tick *Tick, flag *int, t time.Time) {
    if tick.executing {
        return
    }

    tick.executing = true

    *flag = *flag + 1

    if (*flag % 2 ==0 ) {
                time.Sleep(time.Second*4)
    }   
        fmt.Println("Current time: ", t)
    tick.executing = false
}

func main() {
    tick := &Tick{
        ticker: time.NewTicker(3*time.Second),
    }
    flag := 0
    defer tick.ticker.Stop()
    for {
        select {
        case t := <-tick.ticker.C:
            go somethingYouWantToDo(tick, &flag, t)
        }
    }
}
// output
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:03 +0000 UTC m=+3.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:06 +0000 UTC m=+6.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:12 +0000 UTC m=+12.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:15 +0000 UTC m=+15.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:21 +0000 UTC m=+21.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:24 +0000 UTC m=+24.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:30 +0000 UTC m=+30.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:33 +0000 UTC m=+33.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:39 +0000 UTC m=+39.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:42 +0000 UTC m=+42.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:48 +0000 UTC m=+48.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:51 +0000 UTC m=+51.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:00:57 +0000 UTC m=+57.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:01:00 +0000 UTC m=+60.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:01:06 +0000 UTC m=+66.000000001
// Current time:  2009-11-10 23:01:09 +0000 UTC m=+69.000000001

Try it on the playground