Returning a value from thread?

Question

How do I return a value from a thread?

Answer 1

It depends on how do you want to create the thread and available .NET version:

.NET 2.0+:

A) You can create the Thread object directly. In this case you could use "closure" - declare variable and capture it using lambda-expression:

object result = null;
Thread thread = new System.Threading.Thread(() => { 
    //Some work...
    result = 42; });
thread.Start();
thread.Join();
Console.WriteLine(result);

B) You can use delegates and IAsyncResult and return value from EndInvoke() method:

delegate object MyFunc();
...
MyFunc x = new MyFunc(() => { 
    //Some work...
    return 42; });
IAsyncResult asyncResult = x.BeginInvoke(null, null);
object result = x.EndInvoke(asyncResult);

C) You can use BackgroundWorker class. In this case you could use captured variable (like with Thread object) or handle RunWorkerCompleted event:

BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.DoWork += (s, e) => {
    //Some work...
    e.Result = 42;
};
worker.RunWorkerCompleted += (s, e) => {
    //e.Result "returned" from thread
    Console.WriteLine(e.Result);
};
worker.RunWorkerAsync();

.NET 4.0+:

Starting with .NET 4.0 you could use Task Parallel Library and Task class to start your threads. Generic class Task allows you to get return value from Result property:

//Main thread will be blocked until task thread finishes
//(because of obtaining the value of the Result property)
int result = Task.Factory.StartNew(() => {
    //Some work...
    return 42;}).Result;

.NET 4.5+:

Starting with .NET 4.5 you could also use async/await keywords to return value from task directly instead of obtaining Result property:

int result = await Task.Run(() => {
    //Some work...
    return 42; });

Note: method, which contains the code above shoud be marked with asynckeyword.

For many reasons using of Task Parallel Library is preferable way of working with threads.