How to block a timer while processing the elapsed event?

Question

I have a timer that needs to not process its elapsed event handler at the same time. But processing one Elapsed event may interfere with others. I implemented the bel

Answer 1

If LookForItWhichMightTakeALongTime() is going to take a long time, I would suggest not using a System.Windows.Forms.Timer because doing so will lock up your UI thread and the user may kill your application thinking that it has frozen.

What you could use is a BackgroundWorker (along with a Timer if so desired).

public class MyForm : Form
{
  private BackgroundWorker backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();

  public MyForm()
  {
    InitializeComponents();
    backgroundWorker.DoWork += backgroundWorker_DoWork;
    backgroundWorker.RunWorkerCompleted +=
                                backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted;
    backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
  }

  private void backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
  {
    e.Result = LookForItWhichMightTakeALongTime();
  }

  private void backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender,
                                             RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
  {
    found = e.Result as MyClass;
  }
}

And you can call RunWorkerAsync() from anywhere you want to, even from a Timer if you want. And just make sure to check if the BackgroundWorker is running already since calling RunWorkerAsync() when it's running will throw an exception.

private void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
  if (!backgroundWorker.IsBusy)
    backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
}