Develop Reference

How to call a function after thread finished?

I try to call a function after thread finished but I can't .
I only can use while(threadName.isAlive) method before my function caller code , but it's not good because the program stops when i use this code . have you any idea ?
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
Thread myThread;
string myString = string.Empty;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
myThread = new Thread(write);
myThread.Start();
while (myThread.IsAlive) ;
textBox1.Text = myString;
}
public void write()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
myString += "aaa " + i + "\r\n";
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
}

If you must attach to a Thread rather than a Task then you can just start a task to wait for the thread to exit and then run some additional code, like this:
using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace Demo
{
static class Program
{
static void Main()
{
Thread thread = new Thread(work);
thread.Start();
Task.Run(() =>
{
thread.Join();
Console.WriteLine("Run after thread finished");
});
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void work()
{
Console.WriteLine("Starting work");
Thread.Sleep(1000);
Console.WriteLine("Finished work");
}
}
}
However, the modern way to approach this is to use Task, await and async.
For example:
async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
textBox1.Text = "Awaiting task";
await writeAsync();
textBox1.Text = "Task finished";
}
Task writeAsync()
{
return Task.Run(() => write());
}
void write()
{
Thread.Sleep(10000);
}
If you try this second approach, you'll see that the UI remains responsive while the textbox says "Awaiting task".
Also note that normally you'd want to stop the user from being able to press the button again while the task is being awaited, to avoid multiple tasks being run. The easiest way to do that is to disable the button while the task is active like so:
async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
button1.Enabled = false;
textBox1.Text = "Awaiting task";
await writeAsync();
textBox1.Text = "Task finished";
button1.Enabled = true;
}

Switch to Task from Thread and let .Net do the (low level) work for you:
public async Task<string> write() {
string myString = string.Empty;
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
myString += "aaa " + i + "\r\n";
await Task.Delay(1000);
}
return myString;
}
private async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
string result = await write();
// continue with (please, notice await) with assigning
textBox1.Text = result;
}

Dataflow Task.WhenAll causes A task was canceled Exception

I am new to Dataflow, and I follow this walkthrough How to: Cancel a Dataflow Block.
I click add button first, and then click cancel, but I got exception about "A task was canceled Exception" after clicking cancel button. I fail to find any way to resolve this error.
Any help would be appreciated.
Update:
Code for demo:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
CancellationTokenSource cancellationTokenSource;
TransformBlock<WorkItem, WorkItem> startWork;
ActionBlock<WorkItem> completeWork;
ActionBlock<ToolStripProgressBar> incProgress;
ActionBlock<ToolStripProgressBar> decProgress;
TaskScheduler uiTaskScheduler;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
uiTaskScheduler = TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext();
Cancel.Enabled = false;
}
private void Add_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!Cancel.Enabled)
{
CreatePipeline();
Cancel.Enabled = true;
}
for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
toolStripProgressBar1.Value++;
startWork.Post(new WorkItem());
}
}
private async void Cancel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Add.Enabled = false;
Cancel.Enabled = false;
cancellationTokenSource.Cancel();
try
{
await Task.WhenAll(
completeWork.Completion,
incProgress.Completion,
decProgress.Completion);
}
catch (OperationCanceledException)
{
throw;
}
toolStripProgressBar4.Value += toolStripProgressBar1.Value;
toolStripProgressBar4.Value += toolStripProgressBar2.Value;
// Reset the progress bars that track the number of active work items.
toolStripProgressBar1.Value = 0;
toolStripProgressBar2.Value = 0;
// Enable the Add Work Items button.
Add.Enabled = true;
}
private void CreatePipeline()
{
cancellationTokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
startWork = new TransformBlock<WorkItem, WorkItem>(workItem =>
{
workItem.DoWork(250, cancellationTokenSource.Token);
decProgress.Post(toolStripProgressBar1);
incProgress.Post(toolStripProgressBar2);
return workItem;
},
new ExecutionDataflowBlockOptions
{
CancellationToken = cancellationTokenSource.Token
});
completeWork = new ActionBlock<WorkItem>(workItem =>
{
workItem.DoWork(1000, cancellationTokenSource.Token);
decProgress.Post(toolStripProgressBar2);
incProgress.Post(toolStripProgressBar3);
},
new ExecutionDataflowBlockOptions
{
CancellationToken = cancellationTokenSource.Token,
MaxDegreeOfParallelism = 2
});
startWork.LinkTo(completeWork);
startWork.Completion.ContinueWith(delegate { completeWork.Complete(); },cancellationTokenSource.Token);
incProgress = new ActionBlock<ToolStripProgressBar>(progress =>
{
progress.Value++;
},
new ExecutionDataflowBlockOptions
{
CancellationToken = cancellationTokenSource.Token,
TaskScheduler = uiTaskScheduler
});
decProgress = new ActionBlock<ToolStripProgressBar>(progress => progress.Value--,
new ExecutionDataflowBlockOptions
{
CancellationToken = cancellationTokenSource.Token,
TaskScheduler = uiTaskScheduler
});
}
class WorkItem
{
public void DoWork(int milliseconds, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
if (cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested == false)
{
Thread.Sleep(milliseconds);
}
}
}
}

As #SirRufo pointed out, the solution to your question is simply don't re-throw the exception after you've caught it. But to highlight some of the other techniques you can use with dataflow as discussed in the comments I put together a small sample. I've tried to keep the spirit and intent of your original code intact. To that end; the original code didn't show how the flow would complete normally, as opposed to cancelled, so I left it out here as well.
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Threading.Tasks.Dataflow;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace WindowsFormsApp1 {
public partial class Form1 : Form {
private CancellationTokenSource cancellationTokenSource;
private TransformBlock<WorkItem, WorkItem> startWork;
private ActionBlock<WorkItem> completeWork;
private IProgress<int> progressBar1Value;
private IProgress<int> progressBar2Value;
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
btnCancel.Enabled = false;
}
private async void btnAdd_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
if(!btnCancel.Enabled) {
CreatePipeline();
btnCancel.Enabled = true;
}
var data = Enumerable.Range(0, 20).Select(_ => new WorkItem());
foreach(var workItem in data) {
await startWork.SendAsync(workItem);
progressBar1.Value++;
}
}
private async void btnCancel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
btnAdd.Enabled = false;
btnCancel.Enabled = false;
cancellationTokenSource.Cancel();
await completeWork.Completion.ContinueWith(tsk => this.Invoke(new Action(() => this.Text = "Flow Cancelled")),
TaskContinuationOptions.OnlyOnCanceled);
progressBar4.Value += progressBar1.Value;
progressBar4.Value += progressBar2.Value;
// Reset the progress bars that track the number of active work items.
progressBar1.Value = 0;
progressBar2.Value = 0;
// Enable the Add Work Items button.
btnAdd.Enabled = true;
}
private void CreatePipeline() {
cancellationTokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
progressBar1Value = new Progress<int>(_ => progressBar1.Value++);
progressBar2Value = new Progress<int>(_ => progressBar2.Value++);
startWork = new TransformBlock<WorkItem, WorkItem>(async workItem => {
await workItem.DoWork(250, cancellationTokenSource.Token);
progressBar1Value.Report(0); //Value is ignored since the progressbar value is simply incremented
progressBar2Value.Report(0); //Value is ignored since the progressbar value is simply incremented
return workItem;
},
new ExecutionDataflowBlockOptions {
CancellationToken = cancellationTokenSource.Token
});
completeWork = new ActionBlock<WorkItem>(async workItem => {
await workItem.DoWork(1000, cancellationTokenSource.Token);
progressBar1Value.Report(0); //Value is ignored since the progressbar value is simply incremented
progressBar2Value.Report(0); //Value is ignored since the progressbar value is simply incremented
},
new ExecutionDataflowBlockOptions {
CancellationToken = cancellationTokenSource.Token,
MaxDegreeOfParallelism = 2
});
startWork.LinkTo(completeWork, new DataflowLinkOptions() { PropagateCompletion = true });
}
}
public class WorkItem {
public async Task DoWork(int milliseconds, CancellationToken cancellationToken) {
if(cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested == false) {
await Task.Delay(milliseconds);
}
}
}
}

After checking the code, I released that the tasks will be cancelled if I click Cancel.
await Task.WhenAll(
completeWork.Completion,
incProgress.Completion,
decProgress.Completion);
But, above code Task.WhenAll need all of the tasks return complete status, then the "A task was canceled Exception" throw as expected if it returned cancelled instead of completed.
For a possible way to resolve this issue, we should return Task completed if we cancelled the task, and the code below works for me.
await Task.WhenAll(
completeWork.Completion.ContinueWith(task => cancelWork(task, "completeWork"), TaskContinuationOptions.OnlyOnCanceled),
incProgress.Completion.ContinueWith(task => cancelWork(task, "incProgress"), TaskContinuationOptions.OnlyOnCanceled),
decProgress.Completion.ContinueWith(task => cancelWork(task, "decProgress"), TaskContinuationOptions.OnlyOnCanceled));
Is it reasonable?

Multi threading approach

I have developed the below code using TPL and all works fine except how to restart the task. Currently when I click button1 the thread starts in textBox1 and similarly with button3 and textBox2. When I click button3 and button4 both the threads get's cancelled.
Now I want to restart the thread where left off on the click event of button1 and button3. I tried many approaches but could not get any idea on how to do this.
Here's the code:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
CancellationTokenSource cancellationTokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
CancellationToken token;
CancellationTokenSource cancellationTokenSource1 = new CancellationTokenSource();
CancellationToken token1;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
token = cancellationTokenSource.Token;
token1 = cancellationTokenSource1.Token;
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Task t = Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
var run = true;
while (run)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
if (token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
run = false;
break;
//token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
}
// your code
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
Action act = () => textBox1.Text = Convert.ToString(i);
textBox1.Invoke(act);
}
}
});
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
cancellationTokenSource.Cancel();
}
private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Task t1 = Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
var run = true;
while (run)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
if (token1.IsCancellationRequested)
{
run = false;
break;
//token1.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
}
// your code
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
Action act = () => textBox2.Text = Convert.ToString(i);
textBox2.Invoke(act);
}
}
});
}
private void button4_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
cancellationTokenSource1.Cancel();
}
}

You need to sync thread using signaling, generally they are achieved using Event Wait Handles like AutoResetEvent, ManualReset and CountdownEvent. You can achieve this with ManualReset.
Declare ManualResetEvent:
CancellationTokenSource cancellationTokenSource1 = new CancellationTokenSource();
CancellationToken token1;
private ManualResetEvent mre = new ManualResetEvent(false);
Modify on CancellationRequest
if (token.IsCancellationRequested) {
run = false;
mre.WaitOne();
//token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
}
OnStart/OnResume: mre.Set();

Is there a difference with Task.Run a void method and Task method returning null?

Consider a form with 2 buttons and a richtextbox:
public partial class MainForm : Form
{
CancellationTokenSource cts;
CancellationToken token;
public MainForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void MainForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
token = cts.Token;
var task = Task.Run(() => WriteSomeLines(), token);
}
private void MainForm_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
cts.Dispose();
}
private void btnStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
token = cts.Token;
var task = Task.Run(() => WriteSomeLines(), token);
}
private void btnCancel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
cts.Cancel();
cts.Dispose();
}
catch (ObjectDisposedException exc)
{
MessageBox.Show(exc.GetType().Name);
//object disposed
}
}
public void WriteSomeLines()
{
if (ControlInvokeRequired(rtbLoops, () => rtbLoops.Text += "Starting new loop \r\n")) ;
else rtbLoops.Text += "Starting new loop \r\n";
for (int i = 0; i < 30; i++)
{
try
{
if (ControlInvokeRequired(rtbLoops, () => { rtbLoops.AppendText("New line " + i + "\r\n"); rtbLoops.ScrollToCaret(); })) ;
else rtbLoops.AppendText("New line " + i + "\r\n");
Thread.Sleep(250);
token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
}
catch (OperationCanceledException ae)
{
MessageBox.Show(ae.GetType().Name);
return;
}
}
return;
}
public bool ControlInvokeRequired(Control c, Action a)
{
if (c.InvokeRequired)
c.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate { a(); }));
else
return false;
return true;
}
}
Is there a difference if WriteSomeLines() is returning void and I use return inside, or if WriteSomeLines() returns Task and I do return null there? I read that I cannot use await with void returning methods, but inserting
await task;
after task declaration (in the code above) compiles perfectly fine, and runs with no issues.
Edit:
private async void btnStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
token = cts.Token;
var task = Task.Run(() => WriteSomeLines(), token);
await task;
rtbLoops.Text += "Task complete";
}
This compiles with no issues if WriteSomeLines() returns void.
Also, slightly unrealted, am I disposing CancellationTokenSource correctly here?
Second Edit:
So is this the correct approach:
private async void btnStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
cts.Dispose();
cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
token = cts.Token;
var task = Task.Run(() => WriteSomeLines(), token);
bool result = await task;
if(result == true) rtbLoops.Text += "Task complete \r\n";
}
and
public async Task<bool> WriteSomeLines()
{
if (ControlInvokeRequired(rtbLoops, () => rtbLoops.Text += "Starting new loop \r\n")) ;
else rtbLoops.Text += "Starting new loop \r\n";
for (int i = 0; i < 30; i++)
{
try
{
if (ControlInvokeRequired(rtbLoops, () => { rtbLoops.AppendText("New line " + i + "\r\n"); rtbLoops.ScrollToCaret(); })) ;
else rtbLoops.AppendText("New line " + i + "\r\n");
await Task.Delay(250);
token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
}
catch (OperationCanceledException ae)
{
MessageBox.Show(ae.GetType().Name);
return false;
}
}
return true;

You should never return a null task; that should cause a runtime NullReferenceException error.
You can use await within an async void method, but you cannot use await to consume an async void method (because you cannot await void).
I recommend that you review my async intro blog post; it should help you get a better understanding of async and await.
am I disposing CancellationTokenSource correctly here?
Your start button needs to cancel/dispose the old cts when it creates a new one.

Cancelling task in C#

I have a Form with two buttons (Start , Stop).
When I press Start Button a Task is initialized and a function is called that keeps running until Stop button is pressed.
But When I press Stop button Form freezes. why?
I have copied snippet from StackOverflow but it still freezes Form.
So tell me how to Cancel Task properly?
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private readonly CancellationTokenSource _cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
private Task _task;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
//Funtion that runs when Task is initialized.
private void EventLoop(CancellationToken token)
{
//Code here..
while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
//Code here..
}
if (token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
MessageBox.Show("Operation Complete..!!");
}
}
//Function for Start Button.
private void Start_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
_task = Task.Factory.StartNew(() => EventLoop(_cts.Token), _cts.Token);
}
//Function for Stop button.
private void Stop_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
_cts.Cancel();
}
}
Similar Example from MSDN:
var compute = Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
return SumRootN(j);
}, tokenSource.Token);`
Form After Stop button is pressed.
token.IsCancellationRequested is true .
Full EventLoop() Function.
private void EventLoop(CancellationToken token)
{
SerialPort sp = new SerialPort();
string text, batch, part, courseName;
text = batch = part = courseName = "";
int courseId = 0;
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate()
{
text = portCB.SelectedItem.ToString();
batch = comboBox2.SelectedItem.ToString();
part = comboBox3.SelectedItem.ToString();
courseName = comboBox1.SelectedItem.ToString();
progressBar1.Value = 20;
using (Model1 db = new Model1())
{
courseId = db.Courses.Where(c => c.Course_name.ToUpper() == courseName.ToUpper()).Select(c => c.Course_Id).Single();
}
});
sp.PortName = text;
sp.BaudRate = 9600;
sp.Open();
while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
text = sp.ReadLine();
if (text.Contains("Found ID #"))
{
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate()
{
textBox2.Clear();
textBox2.Text = "Getting Registation ID.\n";
progressBar1.Value = 60;
});
string splitText = text.Split('#')[1];
int end = splitText.IndexOf(' ');
int id = int.Parse(splitText.Substring(0, end));
using (Model1 db = new Model1())
{
var result = db.Students.Where(s => s.Reg_Id == id && s.Batch == batch && s.Class == part).Select(s => s).SingleOrDefault();
if (result != null)
{
Attendance a = new Attendance();
a.Course_Id = courseId;
a.Student_Id = id;
a.Status = "P";
a.Date = DateTime.Today.Date;
a.Batch = batch;
a.Part = part;
db.Attendances.Add(a);
string message = "";
if (db.SaveChanges() != 0)
{
message = "Attendance Uploaded..!!\n";
}
else
{
message = "Attendance Not Uploaded ..!!\n";
}
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate()
{
progressBar1.Value = 100;
textBox2.AppendText(message);
});
}
else
{
this.BeginInvoke((MethodInvoker)delegate()
{
textBox2.AppendText("Student Does not belong to Specified Batch Or Part..\n");
});
}
}
}
else
{
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate()
{
textBox2.AppendText("No Match Found..!! \n");
});
}
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate()
{
textBox1.AppendText(text + "\n");
});
}
sp.Close();
// This exception will be handled by the Task
// and will not cause the program to crash
if (token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
//MessageBox.Show("Operation Comptele..!!");
}
}

You call MessageBox.Show("Operation Complete..!!"); in the progress of cancellation. This is highly not recommended, not talking about that you are calling an UI operation from other than the UI thread.
Comment the MessageBox.Show("Operation Complete..!!"); line out
* Edit *
Question author's comment on his original question, found the mistake, which line was removed from the post. Here are my conclusion:
Always try to isolate an issue, and reproduce in its purest form. During that process you will probably diagnose and find the issues itself :-).
So if the code with issue is long to post, it is definitely not the way just deleting lines then post it. The way is deleting lines and see if the issue exist, with other words: Isolating the issue in its purest reproducable form

please use async call on your task
private async void Start_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
_task = Task.Factory.StartNew(() => EventLoop(_cts.Token), _cts.Token);
await task;
}