C# 10 in a Nutshell

Chapter 21. Advanced Threading

We started Chapter 14 with the basics of threading as a precursor to tasks and asynchrony. Specifically, we showed how to start and configure a thread, and covered essential concepts such as thread pooling, blocking, spinning, and synchronization contexts. We also introduced locking and thread safety, and demonstrated the simplest signaling construct, ManualResetEvent.

This chapter picks up where Chapter 14 left off on the topic of threading. In the first three sections, we flesh out synchronization, locking, and thread safety in greater detail. We then cover:

• Nonexclusive locking (Semaphore and reader/writer locks)

• All signaling constructs (AutoResetEvent, ManualResetEvent, Countdow⁠n​Event, and Barrier)

• Lazy initialization (Lazy<T> and LazyInitializer)

• Thread-local storage (ThreadStaticAttribute, ThreadLocal<T>, and GetData/SetData)

• Timers

Threading is such a vast topic that we’ve put additional material online to complete the picture. Visit http://albahari.com/threading for a discussion on the following, more arcane, topics:

• Monitor.Wait and Monitor.Pulse for specialized signaling scenarios

• Nonblocking synchronization techniques for micro-optimization (Interlocked, memory barriers, volatile)

• SpinLock and SpinWait for high-concurrency scenarios

Synchronization Overview

Synchronization is the act of coordinating concurrent actions for a predictable outcome. Synchronization is particularly important when multiple threads access the same ...