Using TEvent and MsgWaitForMultipleObjects in blocking main thread - multithreading

Question

I have found this Remy's interesting code.
Delphi : How to create and use Thread locally?
Can this be done so I can do multiple threads and wait until they are all finished and then continue with main thread? I tried it like this but no success...
procedure Requery(DataList: TStringList);
var
Event: TEvent;
H: THandle;
OpResult: array of Boolean;
i: Integer;
begin
Event := TEvent.Create;
try
SetLength(OpResult, DataList.Count);
for i:=0 to DataList.Count-1 do begin
TThread.CreateAnonymousThread(
procedure
begin
try
// run query in thread
OpResult[i]:=IsMyValueOK(DataList.Strings[i]);
finally
Event.SetEvent;
end;
end
).Start;
H := Event.Handle;
end;
while MsgWaitForMultipleObjects(1, H, False, INFINITE, QS_ALLINPUT) = (WAIT_OBJECT_0+1) do Application.ProcessMessages;
for i:=Low(OpResult) to High(OpResult) do begin
Memo1.Lines.Add('Value is: ' + BoolToStr(OpResult[i], True));
end;
finally
Event.Free;
end;
// Do next jobs with query
...
end;

Answer 1

Can this be done so I can do multiple threads and wait until they are all finished
Yes. You simply need to create multiple TEvent objects, one for each TThread, and then store all of their Handles in an array to pass to MsgWaitForMultipleObjects():
procedure Requery(DataList: TStringList);
var
Events: array of TEvent;
H: array of THandle;
OpResult: array of Boolean;
i: Integer;
Ret, Count: DWORD;
// moved into a helper function so that the anonymous procedure
// can capture the correct Index...
procedure StartThread(Index: integer);
begin
Events[Index] := TEvent.Create;
TThread.CreateAnonymousThread(
procedure
begin
try
// run query in thread
OpResult[Index] := IsMyValueOK(DataList.Strings[Index]);
finally
Events[Index].SetEvent;
end;
end
).Start;
H[Index] := Events[Index].Handle;
end;
begin
if DataList.Count > 0 then
begin
SetLength(Events, DataList.Count);
SetLength(H, DataList.Count);
SetLength(OpResult, DataList.Count);
try
for i := 0 to DataList.Count-1 do begin
StartThread(i);
end;
Count := Length(H);
repeat
Ret := MsgWaitForMultipleObjects(Count, H[0], False, INFINITE, QS_ALLINPUT);
if Ret = WAIT_FAILED then RaiseLastOSError;
if Ret = (WAIT_OBJECT_0+Count) then
begin
Application.ProcessMessages;
Continue;
end;
for i := Integer(Ret-WAIT_OBJECT_0)+1 to High(H) do begin
H[i-1] := H[i];
end;
Dec(Count);
until Count = 0;
for i := Low(OpResult) to High(OpResult) do begin
Memo1.Lines.Add('Value is: ' + BoolToStr(OpResult[i], True));
end;
finally
for i := Low(Events) to High(Events) do begin
Events[i].Free;
end;
end;
end;
// Do next jobs with query
...
end;
That being said, you could alternatively get rid of the TEvent objects and wait on the TThread.Handles instead. A thread's Handle is signaled for a wait operation when the thread is fully terminated. The only gotcha is that TThread.CreateAnonymousThread() creates a TThread whose FreeOnTerminate property is True, so you will have to turn that off manually:
procedure Requery(DataList: TStringList);
var
Threads: array of TThread;
H: array of THandle;
OpResult: array of Boolean;
i: Integer;
Ret, Count: DWORD;
// moved into a helper function so that the anonymous procedure
// can capture the correct Index...
procedure StartThread(Index: integer);
begin
Threads[Index] := TThread.CreateAnonymousThread(
procedure
begin
// run query in thread
OpResult[Index] := IsMyValueOK(DataList.Strings[Index]);
end
);
Threads[Index].FreeOnTerminate := False;
H[Index] := Threads[Index].Handle;
Threads[Index].Start;
end;
begin
try
SetLength(Threads, DataList.Count);
SetLength(H, DataList.Count);
SetLength(OpResult, DataList.Count);
for i := 0 to DataList.Count-1 do begin
StartThread(i);
end;
Count := Length(H);
repeat
Ret := MsgWaitForMultipleObjects(Count, H[0], False, INFINITE, QS_ALLINPUT);
if Ret = WAIT_FAILED then RaiseLastOSError;
if Ret = (WAIT_OBJECT_0+Count) then
begin
Application.ProcessMessages;
Continue;
end;
for i := Integer(Ret-WAIT_OBJECT_0)+1 to High(H) do begin
H[i-1] := H[i];
end;
Dec(Count);
until Count = 0;
for i := Low(OpResult) to High(OpResult) do begin
Memo1.Lines.Add('Value is: ' + BoolToStr(OpResult[i], True));
end;
finally
for i := Low(Threads) to High(Threads) do begin
Threads[i].Free;
end;
end;
// Do next jobs with query
...
end;
Either way, note that MsgWaitForMultipleObjects() is limited to waiting on a maximum of 63 (MAXIMUM_WAIT_OBJECTS[64] - 1) handles at a time. The WaitForMultipleObjects() documentation explains how to work around that limitation, if you need to:
To wait on more than MAXIMUM_WAIT_OBJECTS handles, use one of the following methods:
Create a thread to wait on MAXIMUM_WAIT_OBJECTS handles, then wait on that thread plus the other handles. Use this technique to break the handles into groups of MAXIMUM_WAIT_OBJECTS.
Call RegisterWaitForSingleObject to wait on each handle. A wait thread from the thread pool waits on MAXIMUM_WAIT_OBJECTS registered objects and assigns a worker thread after the object is signaled or the time-out interval expires.
Or, you could simply process your list in smaller batches, say no more than 50-60 items at a time.