Wait for pooled threads to complete

Question

I\'m sorry for a redundant question. However, I\'ve found many solutions to my problem but none of them are very well explained. I\'m hoping that it will be made clear, he

Answer 1

Here's a different approach - encapsulation; so your code could be as simple as:

    Forker p = new Forker();
    foreach (var obj in collection)
    {
        var tmp = obj;
        p.Fork(delegate { DoSomeWork(tmp); });
    }
    p.Join();

Where the Forker class is given below (I got bored on the train ;-p)... again, this avoids OS objects, but wraps things up quite neatly (IMO):

using System;
using System.Threading;

/// <summary>Event arguments representing the completion of a parallel action.</summary>
public class ParallelEventArgs : EventArgs
{
    private readonly object state;
    private readonly Exception exception;
    internal ParallelEventArgs(object state, Exception exception)
    {
        this.state = state;
        this.exception = exception;
    }

    /// <summary>The opaque state object that identifies the action (null otherwise).</summary>
    public object State { get { return state; } }

    /// <summary>The exception thrown by the parallel action, or null if it completed without exception.</summary>
    public Exception Exception { get { return exception; } }
}

/// <summary>Provides a caller-friendly wrapper around parallel actions.</summary>
public sealed class Forker
{
    int running;
    private readonly object joinLock = new object(), eventLock = new object();

    /// <summary>Raised when all operations have completed.</summary>
    public event EventHandler AllComplete
    {
        add { lock (eventLock) { allComplete += value; } }
        remove { lock (eventLock) { allComplete -= value; } }
    }
    private EventHandler allComplete;
    /// <summary>Raised when each operation completes.</summary>
    public event EventHandler<ParallelEventArgs> ItemComplete
    {
        add { lock (eventLock) { itemComplete += value; } }
        remove { lock (eventLock) { itemComplete -= value; } }
    }
    private EventHandler<ParallelEventArgs> itemComplete;

    private void OnItemComplete(object state, Exception exception)
    {
        EventHandler<ParallelEventArgs> itemHandler = itemComplete; // don't need to lock
        if (itemHandler != null) itemHandler(this, new ParallelEventArgs(state, exception));
        if (Interlocked.Decrement(ref running) == 0)
        {
            EventHandler allHandler = allComplete; // don't need to lock
            if (allHandler != null) allHandler(this, EventArgs.Empty);
            lock (joinLock)
            {
                Monitor.PulseAll(joinLock);
            }
        }
    }

    /// <summary>Adds a callback to invoke when each operation completes.</summary>
    /// <returns>Current instance (for fluent API).</returns>
    public Forker OnItemComplete(EventHandler<ParallelEventArgs> handler)
    {
        if (handler == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("handler");
        ItemComplete += handler;
        return this;
    }

    /// <summary>Adds a callback to invoke when all operations are complete.</summary>
    /// <returns>Current instance (for fluent API).</returns>
    public Forker OnAllComplete(EventHandler handler)
    {
        if (handler == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("handler");
        AllComplete += handler;
        return this;
    }

    /// <summary>Waits for all operations to complete.</summary>
    public void Join()
    {
        Join(-1);
    }

    /// <summary>Waits (with timeout) for all operations to complete.</summary>
    /// <returns>Whether all operations had completed before the timeout.</returns>
    public bool Join(int millisecondsTimeout)
    {
        lock (joinLock)
        {
            if (CountRunning() == 0) return true;
            Thread.SpinWait(1); // try our luck...
            return (CountRunning() == 0) ||
                Monitor.Wait(joinLock, millisecondsTimeout);
        }
    }

    /// <summary>Indicates the number of incomplete operations.</summary>
    /// <returns>The number of incomplete operations.</returns>
    public int CountRunning()
    {
        return Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref running, 0, 0);
    }

    /// <summary>Enqueues an operation.</summary>
    /// <param name="action">The operation to perform.</param>
    /// <returns>The current instance (for fluent API).</returns>
    public Forker Fork(ThreadStart action) { return Fork(action, null); }

    /// <summary>Enqueues an operation.</summary>
    /// <param name="action">The operation to perform.</param>
    /// <param name="state">An opaque object, allowing the caller to identify operations.</param>
    /// <returns>The current instance (for fluent API).</returns>
    public Forker Fork(ThreadStart action, object state)
    {
        if (action == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("action");
        Interlocked.Increment(ref running);
        ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(delegate
        {
            Exception exception = null;
            try { action(); }
            catch (Exception ex) { exception = ex;}
            OnItemComplete(state, exception);
        });
        return this;
    }
}

Answer 2

First, how long do the workers execute? pool threads should generally be used for short-lived tasks - if they are going to run for a while, consider manual threads.

Re the problem; do you actually need to block the main thread? Can you use a callback instead? If so, something like:

int running = 1; // start at 1 to prevent multiple callbacks if
          // tasks finish faster than they are started
Action endOfThread = delegate {
    if(Interlocked.Decrement(ref running) == 0) {
        // ****run callback method****
    }
};
foreach(var o in collection)
{
    var tmp = o; // avoid "capture" issue
    Interlocked.Increment(ref running);
    ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(delegate {
        DoSomeWork(tmp); // [A] should handle exceptions internally
        endOfThread();
    });
}
endOfThread(); // opposite of "start at 1"

This is a fairly lightweight (no OS primitives) way of tracking the workers.

If you need to block, you can do the same using a Monitor (again, avoiding an OS object):

    object syncLock = new object();
    int running = 1;
    Action endOfThread = delegate {
        if (Interlocked.Decrement(ref running) == 0) {
            lock (syncLock) {
                Monitor.Pulse(syncLock);
            }
        }
    };
    lock (syncLock) {
        foreach (var o in collection) {
            var tmp = o; // avoid "capture" issue
            ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(delegate
            {
                DoSomeWork(tmp); // [A] should handle exceptions internally
                endOfThread();
            });
        }
        endOfThread();
        Monitor.Wait(syncLock);
    }
    Console.WriteLine("all done");

Answer 3

Try using CountdownEvent

// code before the threads start

CountdownEvent countdown = new CountdownEvent(collection.Length);

foreach (var o in collection)
{
    ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(delegate
    {
        // do something with the worker
        Console.WriteLine("Thread Done!");
        countdown.Signal();
    });
}
countdown.Wait();

Console.WriteLine("Job Done!");

// resume the code here

The countdown would wait until all threads have finished execution.

Answer 4

Try this. The function takes in a list of Action delegates. It will add a ThreadPool worker entry for each item in the list. It will wait for every action to complete before returning.

public static void SpawnAndWait(IEnumerable<Action> actions)
{
    var list = actions.ToList();
    var handles = new ManualResetEvent[actions.Count()];
    for (var i = 0; i < list.Count; i++)
    {
        handles[i] = new ManualResetEvent(false);
        var currentAction = list[i];
        var currentHandle = handles[i];
        Action wrappedAction = () => { try { currentAction(); } finally { currentHandle.Set(); } };
        ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(x => wrappedAction());
    }

    WaitHandle.WaitAll(handles);
}

Answer 5

I have been using the new Parallel task library in CTP here:

       Parallel.ForEach(collection, o =>
            {
                DoSomeWork(o);
            });

Answer 6

Here is a solution using the CountdownEvent class.

var complete = new CountdownEvent(1);
foreach (var o in collection)
{
  var capture = o;
  ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem((state) =>
    {
      try
      {
        DoSomething(capture);
      }
      finally
      {
        complete.Signal();
      }
    }, null);
}
complete.Signal();
complete.Wait();

Of course, if you have access to the CountdownEvent class then you have the whole TPL to work with. The Parallel class takes care of the waiting for you.

Parallel.ForEach(collection, o =>
  {
    DoSomething(o);
  });