I am completely perplexed with how my Queue is function. I am attempting (and failing) to write
a small multi-threaded application to collect and display data in C#.
After reading through Albahari's book and using the Consumer/Producer
pattern he describes I got most of it to work except my data seems to get scrambled in the
queue. Before getting queued the fields in my object have the following values
timeStamp = 6
data[] ={4936, 9845, 24125, 44861}
After being dequeued the data looks like
timeStamp = 6
data[] = {64791, 19466, 47772, 65405}
I don't understand why the values in the data filed are being changed after the dequeue? I am perplexed so I thought I'd throw it out there to see if anyone can point me in the right direction to fixing this or to point me in a different direction to proceed.
Relevant Code
Custom Object for data storage
Relevant objects and Fields. The class sensorData is a seperate class use to store my calculations.
public class sensorData
{
public const int bufSize = 4;
public UInt16[] data = new UInt16[4];
public double TimeStamp = 0;
public int timeIndex = 0;
}
The following fields are used to setup the queue and signals between the enqueue and dequeue threads.
EventWaitHandle wh = new AutoResetEvent(false);
Queue<sensorData> dataQ = new Queue<sensorData>();
object locker = new object();
Enqueue Method/Thread
This is my worker thread it calculates four Sine curves and queues the result for processing. I also write the results to a file so I know what it has calculated.
private void calculateAndEnqueueData(BackgroundWorker worker, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
int j = 0;
double time = 0;
double dist;
UInt16[] intDist = new UInt16[sensorData.bufSize];
UInt16 uint16Dist;
// Frequencies of the four Sine curves
double[] myFrequency = { 1, 2, 5, 10 };
// Creates the output file.
StreamWriter sw2 = File.CreateText("c:\\tmp\\QueuedDataTest.txt");
// Main loop to calculate my Sine curves
while (!worker.CancellationPending)
{
// Calculate four Sine curves
for (int i = 0; i < collectedData.numberOfChannels; i++)
{
dist = Math.Abs(Math.Sin(2.0 * Math.PI * myFrequency[i] * time);
uint16Dist = (UInt16)dist;
intDist[i] = uint16Dist;
}
// Bundle the results and Enqueue them
sensorData dat = new sensorData();
dat.data = intDist;
dat.TimeStamp = time;
dat.timeIndex = j;
lock (locker) dataQ.Enqueue(dat);
wh.Set
// Output results to file.
sw2.Write(j.ToString() + ", ");
foreach (UInt16 dd in dat.intData)
{
sw2.Write(dd.ToString() + ", ");
}
sw2.WriteLine();
// Increments time and index.
j++;
time += 1 / collectedData.signalFrequency;
Thread.Sleep(2);
}
// Clean up
sw2.Close();
lock (locker) dataQ.Enqueue(null);
wh.Set();
sw2.Close();
}
Example line in the output file QueuedDataTest.txt
6, 4936, 9845, 24125, 44861,
Dequeue Data Method
This Method dequeues elements from the queue and writes them to a file. Until a null element is found on the queue at which point the job is done.
private void dequeueDataMethod()
{
StreamWriter sw = File.CreateText("C:\\tmp\\DequeueDataTest.txt");
while (true)
{
sensorData data = null;
// Dequeue available element if any are there.
lock (locker)
if (dataQ.Count > 0)
{
data = dataQ.Dequeue();
if (data == null)
{
sw.Close();
return;
}
}
// Check to see if an element was dequeued. If it was write it to file.
if (data != null)
{
sw.Write(data.timeIndex.ToString() + ", ");
foreach (UInt16 dd in data.data)
sw.Write(dd.ToString() + ", ");
sw.WriteLine();
}
else
{
wh.WaitOne();
}
}
Output result after dequeueing the data and writing it to DequeueDataTest.txt
6, 64791, 19466, 47772, 65405,
Updates 1:
Location of Locks in current code.
I have edited the code to place locks around the writing data to the file. So the code blocks I have locks around are as follows.
In the CalculateAndEnqueueData() method I have
lock (locker) dataQ.Enqueue(dat);
wh.Set
lock(locker)
{
sw2.Write(j.ToString() + ", ");
foreach (UInt16 dd in dat.intData)
{
sw2.Write(dd.ToString() + ", ");
}
sw2.WriteLine();
}
In the dequeueDataMethod() I have two areas with locks the first is here
lock(locker)
if (dataQ.Count > 0)
{
data = dataQ.Dequeue();
if (data == null)
{
sw.Close();
return;
}
}
which I assume locks locker for the code in the if block. The second is where I write the to the file here
lock (locker)
{
sw.Write(data.timeIndex.ToString() + ", ");
foreach (UInt16 dd in data.intData)
sw.Write(dd.ToString() + ", ");
sw.WriteLine();
if (icnt > 10)
{
sw.Close();
return;
}
this.label1.Text = dataQ.Count.ToString();
}
That's all of them.