How to wait correctly until BackgroundWorker completes?

Question

Observe the following piece of code:

var handler = GetTheRightHandler();
var bw = new BackgroundWorker();
bw.RunWorkerCompleted += OnAsyncOperationCompleted;         


        

Answer 1

To wait for a background worker thread (single or multiple) do the following:

1. Create a List of Background workers you have programatically created:

   private IList m_WorkersWithData = new List();
   

2. Add the background worker in the list:

   BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();
   worker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(worker_DoWork);
   worker.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(worker_ProgressChanged);
   worker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
   m_WorkersWithData.Add(worker);
   worker.RunWorkerAsync();
   

3. Use the following function to wait for all workers in the List:

   private void CheckAllThreadsHaveFinishedWorking()
   {
       bool hasAllThreadsFinished = false;
       while (!hasAllThreadsFinished)
       {
           hasAllThreadsFinished = (from worker in m_WorkersWithData
                                    where worker.IsBusy
                                    select worker).ToList().Count == 0;
           Application.DoEvents(); //This call is very important if you want to have a progress bar and want to update it
                                   //from the Progress event of the background worker.
           Thread.Sleep(1000);     //This call waits if the loop continues making sure that the CPU time gets freed before
                                   //re-checking.
       }
       m_WorkersWithData.Clear();  //After the loop exits clear the list of all background workers to release memory.
                                   //On the contrary you can also dispose your background workers.
   }