Hashtable.SyncRoot Property

Definition

Gets an object that can be used to synchronize access to the Hashtable.

public:
 virtual property System::Object ^ SyncRoot { System::Object ^ get(); };
public virtual object SyncRoot { get; }
member this.SyncRoot : obj
Public Overridable ReadOnly Property SyncRoot As Object

Property Value

An object that can be used to synchronize access to the Hashtable.

Implements

Remarks

To create a synchronized version of the Hashtable, use the Synchronized method. However, derived classes can provide their own synchronized version of the Hashtable using the SyncRoot property. The synchronizing code must perform operations on the SyncRoot of the Hashtable, not directly on the Hashtable. 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 Hashtable object.

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 during the entire enumeration:

Hashtable^ myCollection = gcnew Hashtable();
bool lockTaken = false;

try
{
    Monitor::Enter(myCollection->SyncRoot, lockTaken);
    for each (Object^ item in myCollection)
    {
        // Insert your code here.
    }
}
finally
{
    if (lockTaken)
    {
        Monitor::Exit(myCollection->SyncRoot);
    }
}
var myCollection = new Hashtable();
lock (myCollection.SyncRoot)
{
    foreach (object item in myCollection)
    {
        // Insert your code here.
    }
}
Dim myCollection As New Hashtable()
SyncLock myCollection.SyncRoot
    For Each item In myCollection
        ' Insert your code here.
    Next
End SyncLock

Applies to

See also