Explanation of code found online i found following code online, to read the value of a touch sensor... i am having difficulties understanding how the 2 second timeout on the marked line works..
 if ((touch_sensor_value (TOUCH_timeSeconds * 1000))) {
touch_sensor_value is the value read from the touch input.. and the rest?? i dont see any comparison with anything in the parenthesis, i cant figure out how this if condition is working...
#define TOUCH_timeSeconds 2
uint64_t now = millis();
unsigned long lastTrigger_TOUCH = 0;
bool startTimer_TOUCH = false;
bool buttonIsPressed = false;

int touch_sensor_value = 0;
//Mux control pins
int s0 = 26;
int s1 = 27;
int s2 = 14;
int s3 = 12;
//State array
int currentState ;
//Mux in “SIG” pin
int SIG_pin = 33; //is touch sensor
void setup()
{
pinMode(s0, OUTPUT);
pinMode(s1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(s2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(s3, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(s0, LOW);
digitalWrite(s1, LOW);
digitalWrite(s2, LOW);
digitalWrite(s3, LOW);

Serial.begin(115200);
Serial.println(“Multiplexing 1 Touch sensor ESP32 using CD7HC4067 MUX”);

}

void loop() {

for (int i = 0; i &lt; 16; i ++) {
currentState = readMux(i);
touch_sensor_value = touchRead(T9);

if ((touch_sensor_value (TOUCH_timeSeconds * 1000))) {    &lt;-----!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Serial.println(“2 Second LOCK OUT: No rapidly repeating readings”);
buttonIsPressed = false;
startTimer_TOUCH = false;
return;
}

//

}

// delay(1000);
}

int readMux(int channel) {
int controlPin[] = {s0, s1, s2, s3};

int muxChannel[16][4] = {
{0, 0, 0, 0}, //channel 0
{1, 0, 0, 0}, //channel 1
{0, 1, 0, 0}, //channel 2
{1, 1, 0, 0}, //channel 3
{0, 0, 1, 0}, //channel 4
{1, 0, 1, 0}, //channel 5
{0, 1, 1, 0}, //channel 6
{1, 1, 1, 0}, //channel 7
{0, 0, 0, 1}, //channel 8
{1, 0, 0, 1}, //channel 9
{0, 1, 0, 1}, //channel 10
{1, 1, 0, 1}, //channel 11
{0, 0, 1, 1}, //channel 12
{1, 0, 1, 1}, //channel 13
{0, 1, 1, 1}, //channel 14
{1, 1, 1, 1} //channel 15
};

//loop through the 4 sig
for (int i = 0; i &lt; 4; i ++) {
digitalWrite(controlPin[i], muxChannel[channel][i]);
}

//read the value at the SIG pin
int val = analogRead(SIG_pin);

//return the value
return val;
}
The comment form of a blog is not an appropriate place to publish source
code, as the content-management system (Wordpress here) quite often does
some destructive transformations. For example, here:
Serial.println(“2 Second LOCK OUT: No rapidly repeating readings”);

Wordpress tried to be “helpful” and replaced the ASCII quotes (&quot;) with
typographic quotes (“ and ”), which makes the line non-compilable.
As for the line you are asking about:
if ((touch_sensor_value  (TOUCH_timeSeconds * 1000)))

it is likely missing a less-than sign (&lt;), as those are often stripped
from user-generated content for security reasons. I don't know why some
of those signs went through the filter, maybe it has something to do
with the white space surrounding them, but this is pure guess.
Given that the code has been destructively mangled, your options are
either to guess from the context, or post a comment asking for
clarification.