C# - How to "Force Quit" a Method

Question

[Console Application]

I would like to have one method on a timer, (Thread.Sleep) and run another method along side it, waiting for the user's response. If the timer runs out before the user can respond (ReadKey), then they will lose a life.

How can I, in short, have a ReadKey be on a timer?

@mdm, I don't see how the new async features would help you much here. — SoftMemes
– SoftMemes, Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 20:58

Henk Holterman · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-11 21:11:58Z

5

Console.ReadKey() is blocking so you can't use that.

You can loop using Console.KeyAvailable() and Thread.Sleep(). No Timer necessary.

var lastKeyTime = DateTime.Now; ... while (true) { if (Console.KeyAvailable()) { lastKeyTime = DateTime.Now; // Read and process key } else { if (DateTime.Now - lastKeyTime > timeoutSpan) { lastKeyTime = DateTime.Now; // lose a live } } Thread.Sleep(50); // from 1..500 will work }

edited Jul 11, 2011 at 21:11

answered Jul 11, 2011 at 20:55

Henk Holterman

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3 Comments

SoftMemes Over a year ago

If you go down this route (and need any sort of accurate timing), make sure to keep track of actual time since the countdown started rather than relying on multiples of the sleep interval.

Ed Bayiates Over a year ago

You can sleep for short periods but use DateTime.Now's milliseconds (subtracting the original value you saved before entering the loop) to see the total elapsed time.

Ian Cordle Over a year ago

Okay, this got me on the right track, I think I have an idea that is a tad simpler than your example. Thanks for your help.

SoftMemes · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-11 20:56:55Z

You can create a shared ManualResetEvent, start up a new thread (or use the thread pool) and use the .WaitOne() method with a timeout on the second thread. After ReadKey() returns, you signal the event, the other thread will know if it has been woken up because of a key having been pressed or because of the timeout and can react accordingly.

The point is that ReadKey() doesn't return when a timeout happens.
@Henk, indeed - but the program logic can still continue on the other thread. Is it a problem that ReadKey() hasn't returned yet, or will lanVal still want to read keys..?

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