Reliably stop System.Threading.Timer?

Question

Well I've searched a lot for a solution to this. I'm looking for a clean and simple way to prevent the callback method of a System.Threading.Timer from being invoked after I've stopped it.

I can't seem to find any, and this has led me, on occassion, to resort to the dreaded thread-thread.sleep-thread.abort combo.

Can it be done using lock?

Answer 1

like Conrad Frix suggested you should use the System.Timers.Timer class instead, like:

private System.Timers.Timer _timer = new System.Timers.Timer();
private volatile bool _requestStop = false;

public constructor()
{
    _timer.Interval = 100;
    _timer.Elapsed += OnTimerElapsed;
    _timer.AutoReset = false;
    _timer.Start();
}

private void OnTimerElapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
    // do work....
    if (!_requestStop)
    {
        _timer.Start();//restart the timer
    }
}

private void Stop()
{
    _requestStop = true;
    _timer.Stop();
}

private void Start()
{
    _requestStop = false;
    _timer.Start();
}