Question

How can I abort the execution of a method if its taking too long to run?

e.g.

string foo = DoSomethingComplex();

but if DoSomethingComplex() is taking too long (20 seconds lets say).
then just set foo to “”;

Answer 1

You can create a new thread running your method, then:

thread.Start();
bool success = thread.Join(20000);

Join returns true if thread finished successfully before designated time. Obviously, would not abort the method (probably no way to do that directly), but the thread — but it seems that would accomplish what you desired.

A simple threading code example probably would go something like below. Note I made some assumptions about signature with parameter, all this in some class, etc. For method:

    public string DoSomethingComplex(int param)

and then in the same class:

public delegate void Callback(string newFoo);

public void ThreadedDoSomethingComplexEnded(string newFoo)
{
    foo = newFoo;
}

private static void ThreadedDoSomethingComplex(ClassFooIsIn fooObject, int param, Callback callback)
{
    var newFoo = fooObject.DoSomethingComplex(param);
    callback(newFoo);
}

usage aka code in some other method in ClassFooIsIn:

var thread = new Thread(() => ThreadedDoSomethingComplex(this, param, ThreadedDoSomethingComplexEnded));
thread.Start();

if (!thread.Join(20000))
{
     foo = "";
}

Foo should be initialized before above shown usage, so in reality you could possibly skip foo = “”; line.