ReaderWriterLock.AnyWritersSince(Int32) Method

Definition

Indicates whether the writer lock has been granted to any thread since the sequence number was obtained.

public bool AnyWritersSince (int seqNum);

Parameters

seqNum
Int32

The sequence number.

Returns

true if the writer lock has been granted to any thread since the sequence number was obtained; otherwise, false.

Examples

The following code example shows how to use the AnyWritersSince method and the WriterSeqNum property to determine whether another thread acquired the writer lock on the protected resource since the current thread last held the writer lock.

This code is part of a larger example provided for the ReaderWriterLock class.

// The complete code is located in the ReaderWriterLock class topic.
using System;
using System.Threading;

public class Example
{
   static ReaderWriterLock rwl = new ReaderWriterLock();
   // Define the shared resource protected by the ReaderWriterLock.
   static int resource = 0;
// Release all locks and later restores the lock state.
// Uses sequence numbers to determine whether another thread has
// obtained a writer lock since this thread last accessed the resource.
static void ReleaseRestore(Random rnd, int timeOut)
{
   int lastWriter;

   try {
      rwl.AcquireReaderLock(timeOut);
      try {
         // It's safe for this thread to read from the shared resource,
         // so read and cache the resource value.
         int resourceValue = resource;     // Cache the resource value.
         Display("reads resource value " + resourceValue);
         Interlocked.Increment(ref reads);

         // Save the current writer sequence number.
         lastWriter = rwl.WriterSeqNum;

         // Release the lock and save a cookie so the lock can be restored later.
         LockCookie lc = rwl.ReleaseLock();

         // Wait for a random interval and then restore the previous state of the lock.
         Thread.Sleep(rnd.Next(250));
         rwl.RestoreLock(ref lc);

         // Check whether other threads obtained the writer lock in the interval.
         // If not, then the cached value of the resource is still valid.
         if (rwl.AnyWritersSince(lastWriter)) {
            resourceValue = resource;
            Interlocked.Increment(ref reads);
            Display("resource has changed " + resourceValue);
         }
         else {
            Display("resource has not changed " + resourceValue);
         }
      }
      finally {
         // Ensure that the lock is released.
         rwl.ReleaseReaderLock();
      }
   }
   catch (ApplicationException) {
      // The reader lock request timed out.
      Interlocked.Increment(ref readerTimeouts);
   }
}
}

Remarks

You can use WriterSeqNum and AnyWritersSince to improve application performance. For example, a thread might cache the information it obtains while holding a reader lock. After releasing and later reacquiring the lock, the thread can use AnyWritersSince to determine whether other threads have written to the resource in the interim; if not, the cached information can be used. This technique is useful where reading the information protected by the lock is expensive; for example, running a database query.

The caller must be holding a reader lock or a writer lock in order for the sequence number to be useful.

Applies to

Product Versies
.NET Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0, 2.1

See also