thread question

I don't know where and how you are using this. But I can give a you a small suggestion if you bother about multiple queries at a same time.

Forward all the queries to a single function, where you can put everything in a que, from there you can execute the request one by one (which are in the que). For this you can use a collection as a que.

Whenever you get query put it in a collection. Mean time your timer can execute the query and remove them from the collection. Don't forget to disable the timer before executing the query (inside the timer function) and start the timer again after executing the query.

This will avoid the problem of missing and handling some of the queries.

..kannan

<ping>.. Listening

VB, though equipped with multithreading, does something very nasty when needing to execute code from the same codebase on different threads. It serializes the requests. This means that you will never see a second call into the same procedure or class module before the first one is finished.

If you want true independant execution have you queries execute in an out of process component (activex exe) and set the class module that will execute the queries for you to Single Use. This will launch a new process for each query. Also, a seperate codebase will be loaded for each process. You must also expedite a quick return from your function call and raise an event when the query is done because otherwise vb simply wait for your query.

DRAWBACK: If your query returns large objects beware of the fact that cross process marshaling is really slow.

ps: drawback2: this also eats memory by the megabyte!

fparie, I don't really understand what you mean.

Since I update my code to use thread, it often crash.  Do you now why?  A lot of time, it crash at the first call of an function.

DanielBlais
What i understood from fparie, instead of using a DLL uou better use an EXE with the thread per object threading model. Every time the client will create a new EXE to call your function, the function will be executed and processed in a new thread, thus removing any chances of serializing the process calls that can happen in case of multithreading. However the two drawbacks should be handled carefully, e.g always set the EXE to nothing right after you finish processing etc. This releases the memory the earliest you are finished with the EXE. Just an explainatory comment

Cheers

Here is an example. This program reads 3 text files on 3 different threads.  I added a project reference to Microsoft Scripting Runtime to use File System Objects to access the files. Of course you can use some other method if you prefer.  
 
Timers on forms are used to kick off the threads asynchronously so the files process at the same time. A form is also used to identify the first time though, since main is automatically called every time a thread is created.

Please ask if you have questions. I tried to make it a clean example but I know it isn't easy to follow if you aren't familiar with it. Hope it helps!


==============================================
' MainModule.bas

' ActiveX EXE Name = MTNF
' Startup Object = Sub Main
' Threading Model = Thread per Object
' Start Mode = Standalone
' !!! Must compile and run outside IDE !!!

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal
lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private frmMainThreadForm As MainThreadForm
Private Const PROC_CAPTION = "MTNF Main Thread Form"
Private Thread1  As ProcessFileObject

Sub Main()
   If 0 = FindWindow(vbNullString, PROC_CAPTION) Then
       'MsgBox "Main = " & Hex(App.ThreadID)
       Set frmMainThreadForm = New MainThreadForm ' create first form on pre-existing thread
       frmMainThreadForm.Caption = PROC_CAPTION
       Set frmMainThreadForm = Nothing 'don't need this reference, form loads itself and stays alive until unloaded
   End If
End Sub

Public Sub CreateThreads()
  Set Thread1 = CreateObject("MTNF.ProcessFileObject")
  Thread1.ProcessFile "a.txt"
  Set Thread1 = Nothing
  '
  Set Thread1 = CreateObject("MTNF.ProcessFileObject")
  Thread1.ProcessFile "b.txt"
  Set Thread1 = Nothing
  '
  Set Thread1 = CreateObject("MTNF.ProcessFileObject")
  Thread1.ProcessFile "c.txt"
  Set Thread1 = Nothing
End Sub

Public Sub ReportRecordCount(FileName As String, RecCount As Long)
   MsgBox FileName & " contains " & CStr(RecCount) & " records. Reported by Thread " & Hex(App.ThreadID)
End Sub

==============================================
' MainThreadForm.frm

Private Sub Form_Initialize()
    Timer1.Interval = 100
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
   Timer1.Enabled = False
   CreateThreads
   Unload Me
End Sub

==============================================
' ProcessFileObject.cls

Private frmTimerForm As TimerForm
   
Private Sub Class_Initialize()
   'MsgBox "Worker = " & Hex(App.ThreadID)
End Sub

Public Sub ProcessFile(FileName As String)
   Set frmTimerForm = New TimerForm
   frmTimerForm.SetOwner Me
   frmTimerForm.StartTimer FileName
End Sub

Public Sub RecordCount(FileName As String)
   ' add project reference to Microsoft Scripting Runtime
   ' to use File System Objects
   Dim fso As New FileSystemObject
   Dim fil1 As File
   Dim ts As TextStream
   Set fil1 = fso.GetFile(FileName)
   Set ts = fil1.OpenAsTextStream(ForReading)
   ts.ReadAll
   ReportRecordCount FileName, ts.Line
   ts.Close
   Set frmTimerForm = Nothing
End Sub
==============================================
' TimerForm.frm

Private objOwner As ProcessFileObject
Private strFileName As String

Public Sub SetOwner(objRef As ProcessFileObject)
   Set objOwner = objRef
End Sub

Public Sub StartTimer(FileName As String)
   strFileName = FileName
   Timer1.Interval = 55
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
   Timer1.Enabled = False
   objOwner.RecordCount (strFileName)
   Set objOwner = Nothing
   Unload Me
End Sub

I want to create an ActiveX DLL that use thread.  It always crash.  How can I do it?

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