Waiting for multiples threads using WaitForMultipleObjects

Question

I'm using the WaitForMultipleObjects function to wait for the finalization of several threads, but I'm doing something wrong because the result is not the expected

see this sample code

type
  TForm1 = class(TForm)
    Memo1: TMemo;
    Button1: TButton;
    procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
  private
  end;

  TFoo = class(TThread)
  private
    Factor: Double;
    procedure ShowData;
  protected
    procedure Execute; override;
    constructor Create(AFactor : Double);
  end;


var
  Form1: TForm1;

implementation

Uses
 Math;

{$R *.dfm}

{ TFoo }

constructor TFoo.Create(AFactor: Double);
begin
  inherited Create(False);
  Factor := AFactor;
  FreeOnTerminate := True;

end;

procedure TFoo.Execute;
const
  Max=100000000;
var
  i : Integer;
begin
  inherited;
  for i:=1 to Max do
    Factor:=Sqrt(Factor);

  Synchronize(ShowData);
end;

procedure TFoo.ShowData;
begin
  Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add(FloatToStr(Factor));
end;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
const
 nThreads=5;
Var
 tArr  : Array[1..nThreads]  of TFoo;
 hArr  : Array[1..nThreads]  of THandle;
 i     : Integer;
 rWait : Cardinal;
begin
  for i:=1  to nThreads do
   begin
     tArr[i]:=TFoo.Create(Pi*i);
     hArr[i]:=tArr[i].Handle;
   end;

  repeat
    rWait:= WaitForMultipleObjects(nThreads, @hArr, True, 100);
    Application.ProcessMessages;
  until rWait<>WAIT_TIMEOUT;
  //here I want to show this message when all the threads are terminated    
  Memo1.Lines.Add('Wait done');
end;

end.

this is the current output of the demo app

1
Wait done
1
1
1
1

but I want something like this

1
1
1
1
1
Wait done

How I must use the WaitForMultipleObjects function to wait until all the thread are terminated?

Answer 1

Fix: Remove the FreeOnTerminate.

Your code causes the threads to be freed, when you still need the handles. That's a big bug, and you can get access violations somewhere else in your code, or error return codes coming back from your WaitFormMultipleObjects.

TThread.handle becomes invalid when the TThread is freed, and this terminates your wait loop early because the handle is no longer valid. You could also experience an access access violation, if you tried to access the TThread after it was freed in the background, so I believe it's better to free them intentionally, and at a known time.

Using the thread handle as an event handle works fine, but you should not use FreeOnTerminate to free the thread when it terminates it as this destroys the handles too soon.

I also agree with the people who said that doing a busy-waiting loop with Application.Processmessages is pretty ugly. There are other ways to do that.

unit threadUnit2;

interface

uses Classes, SyncObjs,Windows, SysUtils;

type
  TFoo = class(TThread)
  private
    FFactor: Double;
    procedure ShowData;
  protected
    procedure Execute; override;
    constructor Create(AFactor : Double);
    destructor Destroy; override;
  end;

  procedure WaitForThreads;


implementation

Uses
 Forms,
 Math;

procedure Trace(msg:String);
begin
  if Assigned(Form1) then
    Form1.Memo1.Lines.Add(msg);
end;



{ TFoo }

constructor TFoo.Create(AFactor: Double);
begin
  inherited Create(False);
  FFactor := AFactor;
//  FreeOnTerminate := True;

end;

destructor TFoo.Destroy;
begin
  inherited;
end;

procedure TFoo.Execute;
const
  Max=100000000;
var
  i : Integer;
begin
  inherited;
  for i:=1 to Max do
    FFactor:=Sqrt(FFactor);


  Synchronize(ShowData);
end;


procedure TFoo.ShowData;
begin

  Trace(FloatToStr(FFactor));
end;

procedure WaitForThreads;
const
 nThreads=5;
Var
 tArr  : Array[1..nThreads]  of TFoo;
 hArr  : Array[1..nThreads]  of THandle;
 i     : Integer;
 rWait : Cardinal;
begin
  for i:=1  to nThreads do
   begin
     tArr[i]:=TFoo.Create(Pi*i);
     hArr[i]:=tArr[i].handle; // Event.Handle;
   end;

  repeat
    rWait:= WaitForMultipleObjects(nThreads, @hArr[1],{waitAll} True, 150);
    Application.ProcessMessages;
  until rWait<>WAIT_TIMEOUT;
  Sleep(0);
  //here I want to show this message when all the threads are terminated
  Trace('Wait done');

  for i:=1  to nThreads do
   begin
     tArr[i].Free;
   end;

end;

end.

Answer 2

If you really want to learn how multithreading works, you're on a correct path - learn through code and ask questions as you did here. If, however, you just want to use multithreading in your application, you can do it in much simpler way with OmniThreadLibrary provided you use at least Delphi 2009.

uses
  Math,
  OtlTask,
  OtlParallel;

function Calculate(factor: real): real;
const
  Max = 100000000;
var
  i: integer;
begin
  Result := factor;
  for i := 1 to Max do
    Result := Sqrt(Result);
end;

procedure TForm35.btnClick(Sender: TObject);
const
  nThreads = 5;
begin
  Parallel.ForEach(1, nThreads).Execute(
    procedure (const task: IOmniTask; const value: integer)
    var
      res: real;
    begin
      res := Calculate(Pi*value);
      task.Invoke(
        procedure begin
          Form35.Memo1.Lines.Add(FloatToStr(res));
        end
      );
    end
  );
  Memo1.Lines.Add('All done');
end;