ParameterizedThread in .NET 1.1

stefan.sedich — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:07:00 GMT

Had a problem where I wanted to run a function in a thread but it expected multiple params. So I went around making the ParameterizedThread Class which helped me to execute this method.

The Class:

Public Class ParameterizedThread

Private m_Method As [Delegate]

Public Sub New(ByVal inMethod As [Delegate])

m_Method = inMethod

End Sub

Public Sub Start(ByVal ParamArray inArgs As Object())

Dim threadClass As New InternalThreadClass(m_Method, inArgs)

Dim thread As New Threading.Thread(AddressOf threadClass.RunThread)
thread.Start()

End Sub

Private Class InternalThreadClass

Private m_Args() As Object
Private m_Method As [Delegate]

        Public Sub New(ByVal inMethod As [Delegate], ByVal ParamArray inArgs As Object())
            m_Method = inMethod
            m_Args = inArgs
        End Sub

Public Sub RunThread()

            Try
                m_Method.DynamicInvoke(m_Args)
            Catch ex As Exception
                Throw ex
            End Try

End Sub

End Class

Usage Example:

To use this class we need to create a delegate for our method. Create a new ParameterizedThread class instance and call the start method with the params the function expects.

Private Delegate Sub DoNothingDelegate(ByVal inName as String, ByVal inAge as String)
Private Sub DoNothing(ByVal inName as String, ByVal inAge as String)
' Does Nothing :)
End Sub

This is our function we would like to call and pass in the params, to do so use the following:

Dim deleg as DoNothingDelegate = AddressOf DoNothing
Dim thr as new ParameterizedThread(deleg)
' Call start passing in our params
thr.Start("bob", 22)

Issues:

There is not much checking to make sure the params match the types expected in the method. It seems to work fine for my purposes but it could be totally wrong.

Once again thanks for reading and any feedback on whether or not this will work as expected in all cases would be appreciated.

Cheers

Stefan

Update 200711151238:

I changed the class so that the args were placed in an internal class which was then called in the new thread. I thought maybe without this the state could be lost. No sure but..

Stefan Sedich's Blog : .NET 1.1

ParameterizedThread in .NET 1.1