Using a Background Worker - Update a ProgressBar on the progress of a Recursive Method

Question

Below is a method that I want to ship off into a background worker but I am struggling how to do it based on how created my method. As you can it doesn\'t return anything wh

Answer 1

I think it is much simpler to use the built-in methods on either Directory or DirectoryInfo to obtain all directories, or files, using the recursive search option:

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    private Action<float> updateProgMethod;

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        updateProgMethod = UpdateProgress;
    }

    private void GetDirectorySizeAsync(string path)
    {
        backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync(path);
    }

    private void backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
    {
        DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo((string)e.Argument);
        di.GetTotalSize(ProgressCallback);
    }

    // Takes callbacks from the GetTotalSize() method
    private void ProgressCallback(float p)
    {
        // Invokes update progress bar on GUI thread:
        this.BeginInvoke(updateProgMethod, new object[] { p });
    }

    // Actually updates the progress bar:
    private void UpdateProgress(float p)
    {
        progressBar.Value = (int)(p * (progressBar.Maximum - progressBar.Minimum)) + progressBar.Minimum;
    }
}

public static class IOExtensions
{
    public static long GetTotalSize(this DirectoryInfo directory, Action<float> progressCallback)
    {
        FileInfo[] files = directory.GetFiles("*.*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
        long sum = 0;
        int countDown = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < files.Length; i++)
        {
            sum += files[i].Length;
            countDown--;
            if (progressCallback != null && countDown <= 0)
            {
                countDown = 100;
                progressCallback((float)i / files.Length);
            }
        }
        return sum;
    }
}

It's hard to guess progress without knowing the number of files or folders first!

EDIT: I've improved the code a little.

Answer 2

I would report how far you have gotten since you don't know the goal until you get there. I would do it once per invocation. Perhaps # of files and # of directories seen so far.

Answer 3

If, when you call a method, you don't know how long the method is going to take or how many discrete steps are going to be involved, then there is no way to display a progress bar while the method is executing.

In my opinion, the purpose of a progress bar is not to give reliable information about when a task is going to be completed. Rather, the purpose is to keep the user from freaking out and cancelling the whole operation because they think your program has locked up and isn't doing anything at all.

Since you're iterating through directories and sub-directories, a simpler approach here might be to just display the current directory in a Label. This would give the user a relaxing sense that things are happening, and if the directories are all ordered alphabetically, they can even gauge for themselves the overall progress of the operation.