Using Action as an argument in C# (mimicking a function pointer)

Question

I need to write a delegate function that can \'wrap\' some while/try/catch code around a basic UDP call to verify the link. I made it work for Func for a function that has no ar

Answer 1

If you want this to be generic enough to handle any number of arguments, try using the non-genernic Action delegate:

protected void udpCommand(Action command)
{
    while(!linkDownFail)
    {
        try
        {
            command();
            break;
        }
        catch
        {
            LinkStateCallBack(ip, getLinkStatus());
            if (linkDownFail) throw new LinkDownException();
            Thread.Sleep(100);
        }
    }
    return;
}

In C# 3.0, you can call it like this:

udpCommand(() => noParameterMethod());
udpCommand(() => singleParameterMethod(value));
udpCommand(() => manyParameterMethod(value, value2, value3, value4));

In C# 2.0 it's a little uglier:

udpCommand(delegate { noParameterMethod(); });
udpCommand(delegate { singleParameterMethod(value); });
udpCommand(delegate { manyParameterMethod(value, value2, value3, value4); });

This gives you deferred execution without locking you into a particular method signature.

EDIT

I just notice I kinda stole Marc Gravell's comment... apologies Marc. To answer how you might reduce your duplication, you can have the Action method call the Func method, like this:

protected void udpCommand(Action command)
{
    udpCommand(() => { command(); return 0; });
}

I believe (and I may be wrong) that returning 0 is no more costly than (implicitly) returning void, but I may be way off here. Even it it does have a cost, it would only put a tiny itty bitty snoodge extra on the stack. In most cases, the additional cost won't ever cause you any grief.