Easiest way to trigger code at a given time in .NET

Question

I'm looking for something nice and simple. For example:

RunAfter(3, delegate() { z = 5; }); // run after 3 seconds
FnThatTakes5Seconds();

In my cases I want to test some threading code and have something happen in the middle of another function call.

Answer 1

I would use a System.Threading.Timer that only fires once and starts immediately.

System.Threading.Timer _timer = new Timer(ProcessTimer, null, 3000, Timeout.Infinite);

Answer 2

public static void RunAfter(int millisecondTimeout, 
    System.Threading.ThreadStart method) 
{ 
    System.Threading.Thread t = new System.Threading.Thread(() => 
    { 
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(millisecondTimeout); 

        method(); 
    }); 

    t.Start(); 
}

You could then do

RunAfter(3000, () => z = 5;);

Answer 3

You could also use a WaitHandle to wait until a timeout occurs in a backgroundworker.

ManualResetEvent objResetEvent = new ManualResetEvent();
objResetEvent.WaitOne(timeout, ...);