Is there a way to cancel/detach a future in C++11?

Question

I have the following code:

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

using namespace std;

int sleep         


        

Answer 1

Here a simple example using an atomic bool to cancel one or multiple future at the same time. The atomic bool may be wrapped inside a Cancellation class (depending on taste).

#include 
#include 
#include 

using namespace std;

int long_running_task(int target, const std::atomic_bool& cancelled)
{
    // simulate a long running task for target*100ms, 
    // the task should check for cancelled often enough!
    while(target-- && !cancelled)
        this_thread::sleep_for(chrono::milliseconds(100));
    // return results to the future or raise an error 
    // in case of cancellation
    return cancelled ? 1 : 0;
}

int main()
{
    std::atomic_bool cancellation_token;
    auto task_10_seconds= async(launch::async, 
                                long_running_task, 
                                100, 
                                std::ref(cancellation_token));
    auto task_500_milliseconds = async(launch::async, 
                                       long_running_task, 
                                       5, 
                                       std::ref(cancellation_token));
// do something else (should allow short task 
// to finish while the long task will be cancelled)
    this_thread::sleep_for(chrono::seconds(1));
// cancel
    cancellation_token = true;
// wait for cancellation/results
    cout << task_10_seconds.get() << " " 
         << task_500_milliseconds.get() << endl;
}