Question

I am looking for a class that defines a holding structure for an object. The value for this object could be set at a later time than when this container is created. It is useful to pass such a structure in lambdas or in callback functions etc.

Say:

class HoldObject<T> {
 public T Value { get; set; }
 public bool IsValueSet();
 public void WaitUntilHasValue();
}

// and then we could use it like so ...

HoldObject<byte[]> downloadedBytes = new HoldObject<byte[]>();
DownloadBytes("http://www.stackoverflow.com", sender => downloadedBytes.Value = sender.GetBytes());

It is rather easy to define this structure, but I am trying to see if one is available in FCL. I also want this to be an efficient structure that has all needed features like thread safety, efficient waiting etc.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Never seen a class like that, but should be pretty simple.

public class ObjectHolder<T>
{
    private T value;
    private ManualResetEvent waitEvent = new ManualResetEvent(false);

    public T Value
    {
        get { return value; }
        set
        {
            this.value = value;

            ManualResetEvent evt = waitEvent;

            if(evt != null)
            {
                evt.Set();
                evt.Dispose();
                evt = null;
            }
        }
    }

    public bool IsValueSet
    {
        get { return waitEvent == null; }
    }

    public void WaitUntilHasValue()
    {
        ManualResetEvent evt = waitEvent;

        if(evt != null) evt.WaitOne();
    }
}