Question

I have multiple threads (C# application running on IIS) running that all need to communicate with the same MQ backend. To minimize network traffic, I need to only send a backend request when there is work to be done. There will be one thread to monitor if there is work to be done, and it needs to notify the other threads that they should also begin processing. The current solution involves the monitor thread setting a global variable and having the other threads loop and check that, ie in the monitor thread:

CheckIfWorkAvailable() {   while(true) {     if (queue.Empty != true) {       workToBeDone = true;     }   }//end while loop } 

and then in the worker threads:

DoWork() {   while(true) {     if (workToBeDone == true) {       //do work...     }     else {       Thread.Sleep(x seconds)     }   }//end while loop } 

Can the monitor thread notify the worker threads when there is work to do instead of having them just loop and sleep? The worker threads also set a counter indicating they are working and the decrement it when their work is done so the workToBeDone flag can be set to false.

Answer 1

Check out WaitHandle and its descending classes. EventWaitHandle may suit your needs.