I have a function that I want to invoke every x seconds, but I want it to be thread-safe.
Can I set up this behavior when I am creating the timer? (I don't mind which .NET timer I use, I just want it to be thread-safe).
I know I can implement locks inside my callback function, but I think it would be more elegant if it were in the timer level.
My callback function, and environment are not related to a UI.
[Edit 1] I just don't want there to be more than one thread inside my callback function.
[Edit 2] I want to keep the locking inside the timer level, because the timer is responsible for when to call my callback, and here there is a particular situation when I don't want to call my callback function. So I think when to call is the responsibility of the timer.
I'm guessing, as your question is not entirely clear, that you want to ensure that your timer cannot re-enter your callback whilst you are processing a callback, and you want to do this without locking. You can achieve this using a System.Timers.Timer
and ensuring that the AutoReset
property is set to false. This will ensure that you have to trigger the timer on each interval manually, thus preventing any reentrancy:
public class NoLockTimer : IDisposable
{
private readonly Timer _timer;
public NoLockTimer()
{
_timer = new Timer { AutoReset = false, Interval = 1000 };
_timer.Elapsed += delegate
{
//Do some stuff
_timer.Start(); // <- Manual restart.
};
_timer.Start();
}
public void Dispose()
{
if (_timer != null)
{
_timer.Dispose();
}
}
}