Sending Arguments To Background Worker?

Question

You start it like this:

int value = 123;
bgw1.RunWorkerAsync(argument: value);  // the int will be boxed

and then

private void worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e) 
{
   int value = (int) e.Argument;   // the 'argument' parameter resurfaces here

   ...

   // and to transport a result back to the main thread
   double result = 0.1 * value;
   e.Result = result;
}


// the Completed handler should follow this pattern 
// for Error and (optionally) Cancellation handling
private void worker_Completed(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e) 
{
  // check error, check cancel, then use result
  if (e.Error != null)
  {
     // handle the error
  }
  else if (e.Cancelled)
  {
     // handle cancellation
  }
  else
  {          
      double result = (double) e.Result;
      // use it on the UI thread
  }
  // general cleanup code, runs when there was an error or not.
}

Even though this is an already answered question, I'd leave another option that IMO is a lot easier to read:

BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.DoWork += (obj, e) => WorkerDoWork(value, text);
worker.RunWorkerAsync();

And on the handler method:

private void WorkerDoWork(int value, string text) {
    ...
}

You can pass multiple arguments like this.

List<object> arguments = new List<object>();
arguments.Add("first");      //argument 1
arguments.Add(new Object()); //argument 2
// ...
arguments.Add(10);           //argument n

backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync(arguments);

private void worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e) 
{
  List<object> genericlist = e.Argument as List<object>;
  //extract your multiple arguments from 
  //this list and cast them and use them. 
}

You can use the DoWorkEventArgs.Argument property.

A full example (even using an int argument) can be found on Microsoft's site:

• How to: Run an Operation in the Background

you can try this out if you want to pass more than one type of arguments, first add them all to an array of type Object and pass that object to RunWorkerAsync() here is an example :

   some_Method(){
   List<string> excludeList = new List<string>(); // list of strings
   string newPath ="some path";  // normal string
   Object[] args = {newPath,excludeList };
            backgroundAnalyzer.RunWorkerAsync(args);
      }

Now in the doWork method of background worker

backgroundAnalyzer_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
      {
        backgroundAnalyzer.ReportProgress(50);
        Object[] arg = e.Argument as Object[];
        string path= (string)arg[0];
        List<string> lst = (List<string>) arg[1];
        .......
        // do something......
        //.....
       }