Delayed function calls

Question

Is there a nice simple method of delaying a function call whilst letting the thread continue executing?

e.g.

public void foo()
{
    // Do stuff!

           


        

Answer 1

Aside from agreeing with the design observations of the previous commenters, none of the solutions were clean enough for me. .Net 4 provides Dispatcher and Task classes which make delaying execution on the current thread pretty simple:

static class AsyncUtils
{
    static public void DelayCall(int msec, Action fn)
    {
        // Grab the dispatcher from the current executing thread
        Dispatcher d = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;

        // Tasks execute in a thread pool thread
        new Task (() => {
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep (msec);   // delay

            // use the dispatcher to asynchronously invoke the action 
            // back on the original thread
            d.BeginInvoke (fn);                     
        }).Start ();
    }
}

For context, I'm using this to debounce an ICommand tied to a left mouse button up on a UI element. Users are double clicking which was causing all kinds of havoc. (I know I could also use Click/DoubleClick handlers, but I wanted a solution that works with ICommands across the board).

public void Execute(object parameter)
{
    if (!IsDebouncing) {
        IsDebouncing = true;
        AsyncUtils.DelayCall (DebouncePeriodMsec, () => {
            IsDebouncing = false;
        });

        _execute ();
    }
}