Is there a “try to lock, skip if timed out” operation in C#?

Question

I need to try to lock on an object, and if its already locked just continue (after time out, or without it).

The C# lock statement is blocking.

Answer 1

Consider using AutoResetEvent and its method WaitOne with a timeout input.

static AutoResetEvent autoEvent = new AutoResetEvent(true);
if(autoEvent.WaitOne(0))
{
    //start critical section
    Console.WriteLine("no other thread here, do your job");
    Thread.Sleep(5000);
    //end critical section
    autoEvent.Set();
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("A thread working already at this time.");
}

See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc189907(v=vs.110).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.threading.autoresetevent(v=vs.110).aspx and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc190477(v=vs.110).aspx