Question

I have the following method :

public List<string> someMethod()
{

   // populate list of strings
   // dump them to csv file
   //return to output
}

Question is: i dont want the user to wait for csv dump, which might take a while.
If i use a thread for csvdump, will it complete? before or after the return of output?

After csvdump is finished, i d like to notify another class to process the csv file.
someMethod doesnt need to wait for csvdump to finish ?

Answer 1

This is an excellent article on C# threading that anyone wanting to know about C# Threading should read.

But for your situation I would do something like this:

class Program {
  static BackgroundWorker bw;
  static void Main() {
    bw = new BackgroundWorker();
    bw.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
    bw.DoWork += bw_DoWork;
    bw.RunWorkerCompleted += bw_RunWorkerCompleted;

    bw.RunWorkerAsync ();
  }

  static void bw_DoWork (object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e) {
    //Run your code here
  }

  static void bw_RunWorkerCompleted (object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e) {
    //Completed
  }
}

If the process is likely to take some time you can get the BackgroundWorker to report it’s progress too.