Question

i am using the background worker to do an expensive operation:

backgroundWorker1.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backgroundWorker1_DoWork); backgroundWorker1.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged); backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(backgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted); backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync(inputs); 

At the end i have this:

 void backgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e) {    Messagebox.Show('Done with expensive operation 1'}; } 

I now have another expensive operation. Can i reuse this same background worker. I now want new callbacks as i dont want switch statements on the ProgressChanged and DoWork Callbacks to determine if i am doing operation 1 or 2.

Is it just simpler to use 2 seperate background worker classes

Answer 1

Yes, you can re-use a BackgroundWorker – but you can only use it once at any time – not concurrently. If the operations are different, however, I’d use a separate worker. Otherwise you’ll have to unhook the events, hook the correct events, etc. Messy.