How to use multi threading in a For loop

Question

I want to achieve the below requirement; please suggest some solution.

string[] filenames = Directory.GetFiles("C:\Temp"); //10 files

for (int i = 0; i < filenames.count; i++)    
{
    ProcessFile(filenames[i]); //it takes time to execute    
}

I wanted to implement multi-threading. e.g There are 10 files. I wanted to process 3 files at a time (configurable, say maxthreadcount). So 3 files will be processed in 3 threads from the for loop and if any thread completes the execution, it should pick the next item from the for loop. Also wanted to ensure all the files are processed before it exits the for loop.

Please suggest best approach.

Answer 1

Try

Parallel.For(0, filenames.Length, i => {
    ProcessFile(filenames[i]);
});

MSDN

It's only available since .Net 4. Hope that acceptable.

Answer 2

This will do the job in .net 2.0:

class Program
{

    static int workingCounter = 0;
    static int workingLimit = 10;
    static int processedCounter = 0;

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string[] files = Directory.GetFiles("C:\\Temp");
        int checkCount = files.Length;
        foreach (string file in files)
        {
            //wait for free limit...
            while (workingCounter >= workingLimit)
            {
                Thread.Sleep(100);
            }
            workingCounter += 1;
            ParameterizedThreadStart pts = new ParameterizedThreadStart(ProcessFile);
            Thread th = new Thread(pts);
            th.Start(file);
        }
        //wait for all threads to complete...
        while (processedCounter< checkCount)
        {
            Thread.Sleep(100);
        }
        Console.WriteLine("Work completed!");
    }

    static void ProcessFile(object file)
    {
        try
        {
            Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString() + " recieved: " + file + " thread count is: " + workingCounter.ToString());
            //make some sleep for demo...
            Thread.Sleep(2000);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            //handle your exception...
            string exMsg = ex.Message;
        }
        finally
        {
            Interlocked.Decrement(ref workingCounter);
            Interlocked.Increment(ref processedCounter);
        }
    }
}