Sinking Events and handling synchronization in a worker thread proc. (RESEND)

28 Mar 2005 1:30 AM

Bill Davidson

(RESEND: I added a little more code to the sample for clarity)

Hello All:

I've got a question about synchronization requiremements in a C# worker
thread procedure that, among other things, sinks events from outside
sources. I realize the worker thread will be interrupted to handle an
incoming event (and the flow of execution subsequently diverted to the
respective event handler). My question is at what point or points could
this interruption occur? Will it only occur when the worker thread is
executing a Sleep() or similar call (e.g. Event.WaitOne()) call. Or is it
more complicated than that ... perhaps an I/O call (file, network, etc)
could trigger thread interruption and diversion.

For example, take a look at the following simple p-code, especially the
question posed in the MessageReceived() event handler below. If
synchronization is needed to prevent the null reference exception, how would
I do it since everything (the worker thread proc and the event handler
method) both execute on the same thread. Keep in mind this is just a quick
sample that illustrates my question, my actual coding issue is more
complicated that just updating a shared string.

Thanks in advance,
Bill

The following is just pseudo-code; it won't compile

class MyClass
{
    // member variables
    const string Name = "MY_CLASS";
    string MemberString = null;
    bool KeepGoing = true;

    // constructor
    MyClass
    {
        MemberString = "fred";
        WorkerThread = new Thread(WorkerThreadProc);
        WorkerThread.Start();
    }

    WorkerThreadProc()
    {

        // subscribe to some event from a 3rd-party library
        SomeObj AnObj = new SomeObj();

        AnObj.SomethingHappened += new
            ObjectX.SomethingHappenedHandler(MessageReceived);

        while (KeepGoing)
        {

// ************** Section X *************************
            MemberString = null;
            // do some stuff (maybe retreive a new value for MemberString
from DB)
// *******************************************
            MemberString = "Joe";

            Thread.Sleep(5000); // or perhaps an Event.WaitOne() call

        }

    }

    // event handler
    void MessageReceived(object sender, SomethingHappenedEventArgs eArg)
    {

        // QUESTION: COULD THE FOLLOWING LINE EVER RESULT IN A NULL
        // REFERENCE EXCEPTION BECAUSE THE WORKER THREAD WAS
        // INTERRUPTED TO HANDLE THE INCOMING EVENT WHILE EXECUTING
        // Section X above ?????

        int i = MemberString.Length;

    }

}

28 Mar 2005 9:30 AM

Steven Cheng[MSFT]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your posting. Regarding on this post, I've also found your
former one in this group. I've posted my response in that one. I'd
appreciate if you have a look there. In addition, if you feel it convenient
that we continue to discuss in that thread, please feel free to post there.
Thanks,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft Online Support

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