C# How does a background thread tell a UI thread that it has finished doing something?

Question

Scenario

Lets say you have a C# WinForms application that doing some data processing. You have a method that retrieves data from a database that is called by the UI thread. The background thread then runs off to do this task. You want the UI to carry on doing its thing and not be locked up and unresponsive.

QUESTION

How do you let the background thread run off and do its processing and then automatically alert the UI thread when it has returned the results?

Answer 1

If you don't use a background worker thread (for whatever reason) then you must fire an event from your thread which is handled by the UI thread. For example I have this code that scans my mp3s and fires and event for each album found and then another event when it finished (or is stopped):

    public void Build()
    {
        FindAlbums(Root);

        // Final update
        if (Library_Finished != null)
        {
            Library_Finished(this, null);
        }
    }

    private void FindAlbums(string root)
    {
        // Find all the albums
        string[] folders = Directory.GetDirectories(root);
        foreach (string folder in folders)
        {
            string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(folder, "*.mp3");
            if (files.Length > 0)
            {
                // Add to library - use first file as being representative of the whole album
                var info = new AlbumInfo(files[0]);
                if (Library_AlbumAdded != null)
                {
                    Library_AlbumAdded(this, new AlbumInfoEventArgs(info));
                }
            }

            FindAlbums(folder);
        }
    }

Then in the UI thread (this is WinForms code):

    private void Library_AlbumAdded(object sender, AlbumInfoEventArgs e)
    {
        if (dataGridView.InvokeRequired)
        {
            dataGridView.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { AddToGrid(e.AlbumInfo); });
        }
        else
        {
            AddToGrid(e.AlbumInfo);
        }
    }

    private void Library_Finished(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (dataGridView.InvokeRequired)
        {
            dataGridView.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { FinalUpdate(); });
        }
        else
        {
            FinalUpdate();
        }
    }

I would, however, recommend that you investigate the background worker thread, as it does so much of the housekeeping for you. However, the same handling code would be needed in the RunWorkerCompleted event to update the UI.