c# - BackgroundWorker Return A Value?

Question

The following code adds the numbers from 1 to 100 and returns the sum. What I'm trying to do is run the calculations in a backgroundworker and return a value. The problem with this is that returnValue is returned before DoWork completes. How can I have it wait for my background worker to complete before returning a value? (I can't seem to put the return in my DoWork...)

double returnValue = 0;

var b = new BackgroundWorker();
b.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(
    delegate(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e) {
        for(int i=0;i<100;i++){
            returnValue += (i+1);
        }
    }
);

b.RunWorkerAsync();
return returnValue;

Addendum: Would it be better to send a message pump on the same thread instead of running this on a background worker?

Also, this is just example code, my actual code takes more than a minute to complete.

Answer 1

Subscribe to the RunWorkerCompleted event. That event contains the return value of the background operation.

Of course, that value would be returned from inside the DoWorkEventHandler, like so:

b.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(
    delegate(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e) {
        double returnValue = 0;
        for(int i=0;i<100;i++){
            returnValue += (i+1);
        }
        e.Result = returnValue;
    }
);