Implement C# Generic Timeout

Question

I am looking for good ideas for implementing a generic way to have a single line (or anonymous delegate) of code execute with a timeout.

TemperamentalClass t         


        

Answer 1

Some minor changes to Pop Catalin's great answer:

• Func instead of Action
• Throw exception on bad timeout value
• Calling EndInvoke in case of timeout

Overloads have been added to support signaling worker to cancel execution:

public static T Invoke (Func function, TimeSpan timeout) {
    if (timeout.TotalMilliseconds <= 0)
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException ("timeout");

    CancelEventArgs args = new CancelEventArgs (false);
    IAsyncResult functionResult = function.BeginInvoke (args, null, null);
    WaitHandle waitHandle = functionResult.AsyncWaitHandle;
    if (!waitHandle.WaitOne (timeout)) {
        args.Cancel = true; // flag to worker that it should cancel!
        /* •————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————•
           | IMPORTANT: Always call EndInvoke to complete your asynchronous call.   |
           | http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2e08f6yc(VS.80).aspx           |
           | (even though we arn't interested in the result)                        |
           •————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————• */
        ThreadPool.UnsafeRegisterWaitForSingleObject (waitHandle,
            (state, timedOut) => function.EndInvoke (functionResult),
            null, -1, true);
        throw new TimeoutException ();
    }
    else
        return function.EndInvoke (functionResult);
}

public static T Invoke (Func function, TimeSpan timeout) {
    return Invoke (args => function (), timeout); // ignore CancelEventArgs
}

public static void Invoke (Action action, TimeSpan timeout) {
    Invoke (args => { // pass a function that returns 0 & ignore result
        action (args);
        return 0;
    }, timeout);
}

public static void TryInvoke (Action action, TimeSpan timeout) {
    Invoke (args => action (), timeout); // ignore CancelEventArgs
}