As part of an ongoing article I am just about to finish, I needed a thread safe ObservableCollection<T>. Now the native .NET framework doesn’t have one of those, but luckily it supplies you with the right job to create one using some of the Threading APIs.
Here is what I came up with.
1: /// <summary>
2: /// Provides a threadsafe ObservableCollection of T
3: /// </summary>
4: public class ThreadSafeObservableCollection<T>
5: : ObservableCollection<T>
6: {
7: #region Data
8: private Dispatcher _dispatcher;
9: private ReaderWriterLockSlim _lock;
10: #endregion
11:
12: #region Ctor
13: public ThreadSafeObservableCollection()
14: {
15: _dispatcher = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;
16: _lock = new ReaderWriterLockSlim();
17: }
18: #endregion
19:
20:
21: #region Overrides
22:
23: /// <summary>
24: /// Clear all items
25: /// </summary>
26: protected override void ClearItems()
27: {
28: _dispatcher.InvokeIfRequired(() =>
29: {
30: _lock.EnterWriteLock();
31: try
32: {
33: base.ClearItems();
34: }
35: finally
36: {
37: _lock.ExitWriteLock();
38: }
39: }, DispatcherPriority.DataBind);
40: }
41:
42: /// <summary>
43: /// Inserts an item
44: /// </summary>
45: protected override void InsertItem(int index, T item)
46: {
47: _dispatcher.InvokeIfRequired(() =>
48: {
49: if (index > this.Count)
50: return;
51:
52: _lock.EnterWriteLock();
53: try
54: {
55: base.InsertItem(index, item);
56: }
57: finally
58: {
59: _lock.ExitWriteLock();
60: }
61: }, DispatcherPriority.DataBind);
62:
63: }
64:
65: /// <summary>
66: /// Moves an item
67: /// </summary>
68: protected override void MoveItem(int oldIndex, int newIndex)
69: {
70: _dispatcher.InvokeIfRequired(() =>
71: {
72: _lock.EnterReadLock();
73: Int32 itemCount = this.Count;
74: _lock.ExitReadLock();
75:
76: if (oldIndex >= itemCount |
77: newIndex >= itemCount |
78: oldIndex == newIndex)
79: return;
80:
81: _lock.EnterWriteLock();
82: try
83: {
84: base.MoveItem(oldIndex, newIndex);
85: }
86: finally
87: {
88: _lock.ExitWriteLock();
89: }
90: }, DispatcherPriority.DataBind);
91:
92:
93:
94: }
95:
96: /// <summary>
97: /// Removes an item
98: /// </summary>
99: protected override void RemoveItem(int index)
100: {
101:
102: _dispatcher.InvokeIfRequired(() =>
103: {
104: if (index >= this.Count)
105: return;
106:
107: _lock.EnterWriteLock();
108: try
109: {
110: base.RemoveItem(index);
111: }
112: finally
113: {
114: _lock.ExitWriteLock();
115: }
116: }, DispatcherPriority.DataBind);
117: }
118:
119: /// <summary>
120: /// Sets an item
121: /// </summary>
122: protected override void SetItem(int index, T item)
123: {
124: _dispatcher.InvokeIfRequired(() =>
125: {
126: _lock.EnterWriteLock();
127: try
128: {
129: base.SetItem(index, item);
130: }
131: finally
132: {
133: _lock.ExitWriteLock();
134: }
135: }, DispatcherPriority.DataBind);
136: }
137: #endregion
138:
139: #region Public Methods
140: /// <summary>
141: /// Return as a cloned copy of this Collection
142: /// </summary>
143: public T[] ToSyncArray()
144: {
145: _lock.EnterReadLock();
146: try
147: {
148: T[] _sync = new T[this.Count];
149: this.CopyTo(_sync, 0);
150: return _sync;
151: }
152: finally
153: {
154: _lock.ExitReadLock();
155: }
156: }
157: #endregion
158: }
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It relies on this small extension method
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1: /// <summary>
2: /// WPF Threading extension methods
3: /// </summary>
4: public static class WPFControlThreadingExtensions
5: {
6: #region Public Methods
7: /// <summary>
8: /// A simple WPF threading extension method, to invoke a delegate
9: /// on the correct thread if it is not currently on the correct thread
10: /// Which can be used with DispatcherObject types
11: /// </summary>
12: /// <param name="disp">The Dispatcher object on which to do the Invoke</param>
13: /// <param name="dotIt">The delegate to run</param>
14: /// <param name="priority">The DispatcherPriority</param>
15: public static void InvokeIfRequired(this Dispatcher disp,
16: Action dotIt, DispatcherPriority priority)
17: {
18: if (disp.Thread != Thread.CurrentThread)
19: {
20: disp.Invoke(priority, dotIt);
21: }
22: else
23: dotIt();
24: }
25: #endregion
26: }
.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, “Courier New”, courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }Hope it is useful to someone. Enjoy
Sorry, if this is a dumb question, but why a extension method?
Or better, why didn’t you define the extension method on the Dispatcher type?
I like the InvokeIfRequired extension method, but a few questions:
- is there a reason why you are using | and not || ?
- in MoveItem, you are accessing Count multiple times without locking, isn’t it possible to break that check?
Martin
Actually looking at that, it would have been better to define it as an Extension method on the dispatcher. And I like extension methods as they are reusable else where. On anything of that type, granted in this case it it pretty limited.
Martin, Actually yeah I think I need to alter that code for MoveItem. Hand on Ill ammend that.
Martin thanks for your very valid comments, I have ammended the post as you suggested.
Thanks
Your very welcome!
But the MoveItem comment was by Simon and not by me
This post is exactly why I check your blog every day for new posts. I was working on a similar solution and now you just saved me a ton of time.
Thanks!!
Have to admit, I don’t get this code.
If you’re dispatching operations via the Dispatcher, all of the code will executing on a single thread and there should be no need for locking, or did I miss something?
Finally, maybe I just have a different take on things, but I don’t think it’s ever really appropriate to provide an internally synchronized collection. You get a false sense of security at worst and a performance hit at best. The collection is synchronized only at the method level (i.e. calls to two methods in a row are not synchronized) while what you almost always want is a higher level of synchronization (i.e. I want to protect at the data level, not the method level). Collections are low level data types, and as such, I’m always skeptical when they include synchronization concepts. Synchronization belongs at a much higher level.
I wish MS would have provided an IDispatcherObject interface instead of just a DispatcherObject abstract class. Then you could have implemented this interface, and left “synchronization” up to the consumer.
Aaron glad it helps you.
Bill
I do agree with what you say, and I was using this as a collection that is visible via a constantly updating source and also a Dispatcher based object (a control) so this is why there is a need to use the Dispatcher, as sometimes the calls are not forced to be invoked on the Dispatcher. See the extension method.
I know what you mean though, if all calls do need to be invoked to Dispatcher.Currents Thread, its all Single threaded.
I guess this post made more sense in the context of the problem from wence it came.
But I feel it still has a place, so I am leaving it here. But thanks for your comments as alawys most enlightening.
Why not just forget about all those overloads and only overload the OnCollectionChanged and OnPropertyChanged?
Since all the objects that have a problem getting multithreaded input can only get triggered through those two events, all other processing can be done multithreaded.
Great topic though!
Joep
Joep,
Yeah that could actually work,Nice one
Something interesting… if you were to ignore the ToSyncArray() method… there is no reason even use a lock, since all execution will be on the UI thread
Actually this implementation isn’t thread-safe. simple test that should point out the flaw:
when there are items in collection, call Clear and Add immediately after that. It can end up getting wrong Count in Add method (which you cannot override unfortunately) and end up inserting at with index higher than count of items in the collection => causing error. looks like that if you want thread safe observable collection, you need to write one from the ground..
These days I would use these : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.concurrent.aspx
And another time you save my behind. Whilst this is not so much because of your custom ObservableCollection but mostly due to the link in your last reply, I also really can do with that extension method of yours, so Im gonna nick it xD Thanks – again
Sascha, glad link and extension method helped you out
I got an error when i tried to initialize the dispatcher (_dispatcher = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;), the visual studio cannot find the member CurrentDispatcher. I googled many times to solve this problem but didn’t find a solution.
I’m developping a windows phone application and using visual studio professional 2010.