How do I run a simple bit of code in a new thread?

Solution 1:

Good place to start reading is Joe Albahari.

If you want to create your own thread, this is as simple as it gets:

using System.Threading;
new Thread(() => 
{
    Thread.CurrentThread.IsBackground = true; 
    /* run your code here */ 
    Console.WriteLine("Hello, world"); 
}).Start();

Solution 2:

BackgroundWorker seems to be best choice for you.

Here is my minimal example. After you click on the button the background worker will begin working in background thread and also report its progress simultaneously. It will also report after the work completes.

using System.ComponentModel;
...
    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        BackgroundWorker bw = new BackgroundWorker();

        // this allows our worker to report progress during work
        bw.WorkerReportsProgress = true;

        // what to do in the background thread
        bw.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(
        delegate(object o, DoWorkEventArgs args)
        {
            BackgroundWorker b = o as BackgroundWorker;

            // do some simple processing for 10 seconds
            for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
            {
                // report the progress in percent
                b.ReportProgress(i * 10);
                Thread.Sleep(1000);
            }

        });

        // what to do when progress changed (update the progress bar for example)
        bw.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(
        delegate(object o, ProgressChangedEventArgs args)
        {
            label1.Text = string.Format("{0}% Completed", args.ProgressPercentage);
        });

        // what to do when worker completes its task (notify the user)
        bw.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(
        delegate(object o, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs args)
        {
            label1.Text = "Finished!";
        });

        bw.RunWorkerAsync();
    }

Note:

• I put everything in single method using C#'s anonymous method for simplicity but you can always pull them out to different methods.
• It is safe to update GUI within ProgressChanged or RunWorkerCompleted handlers. However, updating GUI from DoWork will cause InvalidOperationException.