Returning a value from thread?

Question

How to Return a value from a thread? in .NET

Answer 1

I would use the BackgroundWorker approach and return the result in e.Result.

EDIT:

This is commonly associated with WinForms and WPF, but can be used by any type of .NET application. Here's sample code for a console app that uses BackgroundWorker:

using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace BGWorker
{
    class Program
    {
        static bool done = false;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            BackgroundWorker bg = new BackgroundWorker();
            bg.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(bg_DoWork);
            bg.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(bg_RunWorkerCompleted);
            bg.RunWorkerAsync();

            while (!done)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Waiting in Main, tid " + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
                Thread.Sleep(100);
            }
        }

        static void bg_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Completed, tid " + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
            done = true;
        }

        static void bg_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
        {
            for (int i = 1; i <= 5; i++)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Work Line: " + i + ", tid " + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
                Thread.Sleep(500);
            }
        }
    }
}

Output:

Waiting in Main, tid 10
Work Line: 1, tid 6
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Work Line: 2, tid 6
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Work Line: 3, tid 6
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Work Line: 4, tid 6
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Work Line: 5, tid 6
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Completed, tid 6

Answer 2

ThreadStart delegates in C# used to start threads have return type 'void'.

If you wish to get a 'return value' from a thread, you should write to a shared location (in an appropriate thread-safe manner) and read from that when the thread has completed executing.

Answer 3

A thread isn't a method - you don't normally "return" a value.

However, if you're trying to fetch a value back from the results of some processing, you have many options, the two main ones being:

• You can synchronize a shared piece of data, and set it appropriately.
• You can also pass the data back in some form of callback.

It really depends on how you're creating the thread, and how you want to use it, as well as the language/framework/tools you're using.

Answer 4

Threads do not really have return values. However, if you create a delegate, you can invoke it asynchronously via the BeginInvoke method. This will execute the method on a thread pool thread. You can get any return value from such as call via EndInvoke.

Example:

static int GetAnswer() {
   return 42;
}

...

Func<int> method = GetAnswer;
var res = method.BeginInvoke(null, null); // provide args as needed
var answer = method.EndInvoke(res);

GetAnswer will execute on a thread pool thread and when completed you can retrieve the answer via EndInvoke as shown.

Answer 5

Here is a simple example using a delegate ...

void Main()
{
   DoIt d1 = Doer.DoThatThang;
   DoIt d2 = Doer.DoThatThang;

   IAsyncResult r1 = d1.BeginInvoke( 5, null, null );
   IAsyncResult r2 = d2.BeginInvoke( 10, null, null );

   Thread.Sleep( 1000 );

   var s1 = d1.EndInvoke( r1 );
   var s2 = d2.EndInvoke( r2 );

   s1.Dump(); // You told me 5
   s2.Dump(); // You told me 10
}

public delegate string DoIt( int x );

public class Doer
{
  public static string DoThatThang( int x  )
  {
    return "You told me " + x.ToString();
  }
}

There's a terrific series on threading at Threading in C#.

Answer 6

If you don't want to use a BackgroundWorker, and just use a regular Thread, then you can fire an event to return data like this:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Threading;

namespace ThreadWithDataReturnExample
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        private Thread thread1 = null;

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            thread1 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(this.threadEntryPoint));
            Thread1Completed += new AsyncCompletedEventHandler(thread1_Thread1Completed);
        }

        private void startButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            thread1.Start();
            //Alternatively, you could pass some object
            //in such as Start(someObject);
            //With apprioriate locking, or protocol where
            //no other threads access the object until
            //an event signals when the thread is complete,
            //any other class with a reference to the object 
            //would be able to access that data.
            //But instead, I'm going to use AsyncCompletedEventArgs 
            //in an event that signals completion
        }

        void thread1_Thread1Completed(object sender, AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            if (this.InvokeRequired)
            {//marshal the call if we are not on the GUI thread                
                BeginInvoke(new AsyncCompletedEventHandler(thread1_Thread1Completed),
                  new object[] { sender, e });
            }
            else
            {
                //display error if error occurred
                //if no error occurred, process data
                if (e.Error == null)
                {//then success

                    MessageBox.Show("Worker thread completed successfully");
                    DataYouWantToReturn someData = e.UserState as DataYouWantToReturn;
                    MessageBox.Show("Your data my lord: " + someData.someProperty);

                }
                else//error
                {
                    MessageBox.Show("The following error occurred:" + Environment.NewLine + e.Error.ToString());
                }
            }
        }

        #region I would actually move all of this into it's own class
            private void threadEntryPoint()
            {
                //do a bunch of stuff

                //when you are done:
                //initialize object with data that you want to return
                DataYouWantToReturn dataYouWantToReturn = new DataYouWantToReturn();
                dataYouWantToReturn.someProperty = "more data";

                //signal completion by firing an event
                OnThread1Completed(new AsyncCompletedEventArgs(null, false, dataYouWantToReturn));
            }

            /// <summary>
            /// Occurs when processing has finished or an error occurred.
            /// </summary>
            public event AsyncCompletedEventHandler Thread1Completed;
            protected virtual void OnThread1Completed(AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)
            {
                //copy locally
                AsyncCompletedEventHandler handler = Thread1Completed;
                if (handler != null)
                {
                    handler(this, e);
                }
            }
        #endregion

    }
}

Answer 7

My favorite class, runs any method on another thread with just 2 lines of code.

class ThreadedExecuter<T> where T : class
{
    public delegate void CallBackDelegate(T returnValue);
    public delegate T MethodDelegate();
    private CallBackDelegate callback;
    private MethodDelegate method;

    private Thread t;

    public ThreadedExecuter(MethodDelegate method, CallBackDelegate callback)
    {
        this.method = method;
        this.callback = callback;
        t = new Thread(this.Process);
    }
    public void Start()
    {
        t.Start();
    }
    public void Abort()
    {
        t.Abort();
        callback(null); //can be left out depending on your needs
    }
    private void Process()
    {
        T stuffReturned = method();
        callback(stuffReturned);
    }
}

usage

    void startthework()
    {
        ThreadedExecuter<string> executer = new ThreadedExecuter<string>(someLongFunction, longFunctionComplete);
        executer.Start();
    }
    string someLongFunction()
    {
        while(!workComplete)
            WorkWork();
        return resultOfWork;
    }
    void longFunctionComplete(string s)
    {
        PrintWorkComplete(s);
    }

Beware that longFunctionComplete will NOT execute on the same thread as starthework.

For methods that take parameters you can always use closures, or expand the class.