CountdownEvent
System.Threading.CountdownEvent is a synchronization primitive that unblocks its waiting threads after it has been signaled a certain number of times. CountdownEvent is designed for scenarios in which you would otherwise have to use a ManualResetEvent or ManualResetEventSlim and manually decrement a variable before signaling the event. For example, in a fork/join scenario, you can just create a CountdownEvent that has a signal count of 5, and then start five work items on the thread pool and have each work item call Signal when it completes. Each call to Signal decrements the signal count by 1. On the main thread, the call to Wait will block until the signal count is zero.
Note
For code that does not have to interact with legacy .NET Framework synchronization APIs, consider using System.Threading.Tasks.Task objects and/or the ParallelInvoke() method for an even easier approach to expressing fork-join parallelism.
CountdownEvent has these additional features:
The wait operation can be canceled by using cancellation tokens.
Its signal count can be incremented after the instance is created.
Instances can be reused after Wait has returned by calling the Reset method.
Instances expose a WaitHandle for integration with other .NET Framework synchronization APIs such as WaitAll.
Basic Usage
The following example demonstrates how to use a CountdownEvent with ThreadPool work items.
Dim source As IEnumerable(Of Data) = GetData()
Dim e = New CountdownEvent(1)
' Fork work:
For Each element As Data In source
' Dynamically increment signal count.
e.AddCount()
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(Sub(state)
Try
ProcessData(state)
Finally
e.Signal()
End Try
End Sub,
element)
Next
' Decrement the signal count by the one we added
' in the constructor.
e.Signal()
' The first element could also be run on this thread.
' ProcessData(New Data(0))
' Join with work:
e.Wait()
IEnumerable<Data> source = GetData();
using (CountdownEvent e = new CountdownEvent(1))
{
// fork work:
foreach (Data element in source)
{
// Dynamically increment signal count.
e.AddCount();
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(delegate(object state)
{
try
{
ProcessData(state);
}
finally
{
e.Signal();
}
},
element);
}
e.Signal();
// The first element could be run on this thread.
// Join with work.
e.Wait();
}
// .,.
CountdownEvent With Cancellation
The following example shows how to cancel the wait operation on CountdownEvent by using a cancellation token. The basic pattern follows the model for unified cancellation, which is introduced in .NET Framework version 4. For more information, see Cancellation.
Option Strict On
Option Explicit On
Imports System
Imports System.Collections
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Threading.Tasks
Module CancelEventWait
Class Data
Public Num As Integer
Public Sub New(ByVal i As Integer)
Num = i
End Sub
Public Sub New()
End Sub
End Class
Class DataWithToken
Public Token As CancellationToken
Public _data As Data
Public Sub New(ByVal d As Data, ByVal ct As CancellationToken)
Me._data = d
Me.Token = ct
End Sub
End Class
Class Program
Shared Function GetData() As IEnumerable(Of Data)
Dim nums = New List(Of Data)
For i As Integer = 1 To 5
nums.Add(New Data(i))
Next
Return nums
End Function
Shared Sub ProcessData(ByVal obj As Object)
Dim dataItem As DataWithToken = CType(obj, DataWithToken)
If dataItem.Token.IsCancellationRequested = True Then
Console.WriteLine("Canceled before starting {0}", dataItem._data.Num)
Exit Sub
End If
' Increase this value to slow down the program.
For i As Integer = 0 To 10000
If dataItem.Token.IsCancellationRequested = True Then
Console.WriteLine("Cancelling while executing {0}", dataItem._data.Num)
Exit Sub
End If
Thread.SpinWait(100000)
Next
Console.WriteLine("Processed {0}", dataItem._data.Num)
End Sub
Shared Sub Main()
DoEventWithCancel()
Console.WriteLine("Press the enter key to exit.")
Console.ReadLine()
End Sub
Shared Sub DoEventWithCancel()
Dim source As IEnumerable(Of Data) = GetData()
Dim cts As CancellationTokenSource = New CancellationTokenSource()
' Enable cancellation request from a simple UI thread.
Task.Factory.StartNew(Sub()
If Console.ReadKey().KeyChar = "c"c Then
cts.Cancel()
End If
End Sub)
' Must have a count of at least 1 or else it is signaled.
Dim e As CountdownEvent = New CountdownEvent(1)
For Each element As Data In source
Dim item As DataWithToken = New DataWithToken(element, cts.Token)
' Dynamically increment signal count.
e.AddCount()
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(Sub(state)
ProcessData(state)
If cts.Token.IsCancellationRequested = False Then
e.Signal()
End If
End Sub,
item)
Next
' Decrement the signal count by the one we added
' in the constructor.
e.Signal()
' The first element could be run on this thread.
' ProcessData(source(0))
' Join with work or catch cancellation exception
Try
e.Wait(cts.Token)
Catch ex As OperationCanceledException
If ex.CancellationToken = cts.Token Then
Console.WriteLine("User canceled.")
Else : Throw ' we don't know who canceled us.
End If
End Try
End Sub
End Class
End Module
class CancelableCountdowEvent
{
class Data
{
public int Num { get; set; }
public Data(int i) { Num = i; }
public Data() { }
}
class DataWithToken
{
public CancellationToken Token { get; set; }
public Data Data { get; private set; }
public DataWithToken(Data data, CancellationToken ct)
{
this.Data = data;
this.Token = ct;
}
}
static IEnumerable<Data> GetData()
{
return new List<Data>() { new Data(1), new Data(2), new Data(3), new Data(4), new Data(5) };
}
static void ProcessData(object obj)
{
DataWithToken dataWithToken = (DataWithToken)obj;
if (dataWithToken.Token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
Console.WriteLine("Canceled before starting {0}", dataWithToken.Data.Num);
return;
}
for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
{
if (dataWithToken.Token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
Console.WriteLine("Cancelling while executing {0}", dataWithToken.Data.Num);
return;
}
// Increase this value to slow down the program.
Thread.SpinWait(100000);
}
Console.WriteLine("Processed {0}", dataWithToken.Data.Num);
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
EventWithCancel();
Console.WriteLine("Press enter to exit.");
Console.ReadLine();
}
static void EventWithCancel()
{
IEnumerable<Data> source = GetData();
CancellationTokenSource cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
//Enable cancellation request from a simple UI thread.
Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
if (Console.ReadKey().KeyChar == 'c')
cts.Cancel();
});
// Event must have a count of at least 1
CountdownEvent e = new CountdownEvent(1);
// fork work:
foreach (Data element in source)
{
DataWithToken item = new DataWithToken(element, cts.Token);
// Dynamically increment signal count.
e.AddCount();
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(delegate(object state)
{
ProcessData(state);
if (!cts.Token.IsCancellationRequested)
e.Signal();
},
item);
}
// Decrement the signal count by the one we added
// in the constructor.
e.Signal();
// The first element could be run on this thread.
// Join with work or catch cancellation.
try
{
e.Wait(cts.Token);
}
catch (OperationCanceledException oce)
{
if (oce.CancellationToken == cts.Token)
{
Console.WriteLine("User canceled.");
}
else throw; //We don't know who canceled us!
}
e.Dispose();
//...
} //end method
} //end class
Note that the wait operation does not cancel the threads that are signaling it. Typically, cancellation is applied to a logical operation, and that can include waiting on the event as well as all the work items that the wait is synchronizing. In this example, each work item is passed a copy of the same cancellation token so that it can respond to the cancellation request.
See Also
Other Resources
EventWaitHandle, AutoResetEvent, CountdownEvent, and ManualResetEvent