asked on

C# abort a thread

Hi

I am new to working with threads. I have something that runs under a thread that just scans for projects and makes sure the folder path exists.

I start it using

Thread th =  new Thread(() =>
           {
                CheckProjects();
            });
th.Start();

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I tried running

th.Abort();

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But that doesn't stop the thread from running.

Is there an easy way to kill that thread? I have a cancel button I would like to use to stop it if needed for some reason mid scan.

Thanks
Fixitben

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Nadav Solomon

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it_saige

Which .NET version are you using? If you are using .NET 4 or above, it is more preferable to use Tasks as opposed to Threads directly. The reason I mention this is because Tasks can be configured to include a cancellation token.

Proof of concept -

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace EE_Q28761679
{
	class Program
	{
		static void Main(string[] args)
		{
			CancellationTokenSource source = new CancellationTokenSource();
			CancellationToken token = source.Token;
			Task<long> task = new Task<long>(() => 
			{
				Stopwatch watch = new Stopwatch();
				watch.Start();
				while (!token.IsCancellationRequested) { ;}
				watch.Stop();
				return watch.ElapsedMilliseconds;
			}, token);
			task.Start();
			Console.WriteLine("Press any key to stop the task");
			Console.ReadLine();
			source.Cancel();
			Console.WriteLine("Task ran for {0} milliseconds...", task.Result);
			Console.ReadLine();
		}
	}
}

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Which produces the following output -

-saige-

fixitben

ASKER

Thanks. This worked great. It took me a little bit to figure out where in the code to place it, but then it works like a charm.

Nadav Solomon

Glad I could help, thanks for the feedback.