Best way to create a "run-once" time delayed function in C#

Question

I am trying to create a function that takes in an Action and a Timeout, and executes the Action after the Timeout. The function is to be non-blocking. The function must be thread safe. I also really, really want to avoid Thread.Sleep().

So far, the best I can do is this:

long currentKey = 0;
ConcurrentDictionary<long, Timer> timers = new ConcurrentDictionary<long, Timer>();

protected void Execute(Action action, int timeout_ms)
{
    long currentKey = Interlocked.Increment(ref currentKey);
    Timer t = new Timer(
      (key) =>
         {
           action();
           Timer lTimer;
           if(timers.TryRemove((long)key, out lTimer))
           {
               lTimer.Dispose();
           }
         }, currentKey, Timeout.Infinite, Timeout.Infinite
      );

     timers[currentKey] = t;
     t.Change(timeout_ms, Timeout.Infinite);
}

The problem is that calling Dispose() from the callback itself cannot be good. I am unsure if it is safe to "fall off" the end, i.e. Timers are considered live while their lambdas are executing, but even if this is the case I'd rather dispose it properly.

The "fire once with a delay" seems like such a common problem that there should be an easy way to do this, probably some other library in System.Threading I am missing, but right now the only solution I can think of is modification of the above with a dedicated cleanup task running on an interval. Any advice?

Answer 1

I don't know which version of C# you are using. But I think you could accomplish this by using the Task library. It would then look something like that.

public class PauseAndExecuter
{
    public async Task Execute(Action action, int timeoutInMilliseconds)
    {
        await Task.Delay(timeoutInMilliseconds);
        action();
    }
}

Answer 2

There is nothing built-in to .Net 4 to do this nicely. Thread.Sleep or even AutoResetEvent.WaitOne(timeout) are not good - they will tie up thread pool resources, I have been burned trying this!

The lightest weight solution is to use a timer - particularly if you will have many tasks to throw at it.

First make a simple scheduled task class:

class ScheduledTask
{
    internal readonly Action Action;
    internal System.Timers.Timer Timer;
    internal EventHandler TaskComplete;

    public ScheduledTask(Action action, int timeoutMs)
    {
        Action = action;
        Timer = new System.Timers.Timer() { Interval = timeoutMs };
        Timer.Elapsed += TimerElapsed;            
    }

    private void TimerElapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
        Timer.Stop();
        Timer.Elapsed -= TimerElapsed;
        Timer = null;

        Action();
        TaskComplete(this, EventArgs.Empty);
    }
}

Then, create a scheduler class - again, very simple:

class Scheduler
{        
    private readonly ConcurrentDictionary<Action, ScheduledTask> _scheduledTasks = new ConcurrentDictionary<Action, ScheduledTask>();

    public void Execute(Action action, int timeoutMs)
    {
        var task = new ScheduledTask(action, timeoutMs);
        task.TaskComplete += RemoveTask;
        _scheduledTasks.TryAdd(action, task);
        task.Timer.Start();
    }

    private void RemoveTask(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        var task = (ScheduledTask) sender;
        task.TaskComplete -= RemoveTask;
        ScheduledTask deleted;
        _scheduledTasks.TryRemove(task.Action, out deleted);
    }
}

It can be called as follows - and is very lightweight:

var scheduler = new Scheduler();

scheduler.Execute(() => MessageBox.Show("hi1"), 1000);
scheduler.Execute(() => MessageBox.Show("hi2"), 2000);
scheduler.Execute(() => MessageBox.Show("hi3"), 3000);
scheduler.Execute(() => MessageBox.Show("hi4"), 4000);

Answer 3

I use this method to schedule a task for a specific time:

public void ScheduleExecute(Action action, DateTime ExecutionTime)
{
    Task WaitTask = Task.Delay(ExecutionTime.Subtract(DateTime.Now));
    WaitTask.ContinueWith(() => action());
    WaitTask.Start();
}

It should be noted that this only works for about 24 days out because of int32 max value.

Answer 4

My example:

void startTimerOnce()
{
   Timer tmrOnce = new Timer();
   tmrOnce.Tick += tmrOnce_Tick;
   tmrOnce.Interval = 2000;
   tmrOnce.Start();
}

void tmrOnce_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   //...
   ((Timer)sender).Dispose();
}