ICollection.SyncRoot Property

Syntax

'Declaration
ReadOnly Property SyncRoot As Object

Object SyncRoot { get; }

Remarks

For collections whose underlying store is not publicly available, the expected implementation is to return the current instance. Note that the pointer to the current instance might not be sufficient for collections that wrap other collections; those should return the underlying collection's SyncRoot property.

Most collection classes in the System.Collections namespace also implement a Synchronized method, which provides a synchronized wrapper around the underlying collection. However, derived classes can provide their own synchronized version of the collection using the SyncRoot property. The synchronizing code must perform operations on the SyncRoot property of the collection, not directly on the collection. This ensures proper operation of collections that are derived from other objects. Specifically, it maintains proper synchronization with other threads that might be simultaneously modifying the collection instance.

In the absence of a Synchronized method on a collection, the expected usage for SyncRoot looks as follows:

ICollection MyCollection;
// Instantiate and populate the collection
 lock(MyCollection.SyncRoot) {
  // Some operation on the collection, which is now thread safe.
 }

Dim myCollection
' Instantiate and populate the collection
 SyncLock myCollection.SyncRoot
  ' Some operation on the collection, which is now thread safe.
 End SyncLock

Enumerating through a collection is intrinsically not a thread-safe procedure. Even when a collection is synchronized, other threads can still modify the collection, which causes the enumerator to throw an exception. To guarantee thread safety during enumeration, you can either lock the collection during the entire enumeration or catch the exceptions resulting from changes made by other threads.

The following code example shows how to lock the collection using the SyncRoot property during the entire enumeration.

ICollection myCollection;
// Instantiate and populate the collection
 lock(myCollection.SyncRoot) {
  foreach (Object item in myCollection) {
  // Insert your code here.
  }
 }

Dim myCollection
' Instantiate and populate the collection
 Dim item As Object
 SyncLock myCollection.SyncRoot
  For Each item In myCollection
  ' Insert your code here.
  Next item
 End SyncLock

Version Information

Silverlight

Supported in: 5, 4, 3

Silverlight for Windows Phone

Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1, Windows Phone OS 7.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: Xbox 360, Windows Phone OS 7.0

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.

See Also

Reference