Threading – thread-safe size capped queue

Here is a queue class based on the implementation Marc Gravell provided in this StackOverflow question:

/// <summary>
/// A thread-safe fixed sized queue implementation
/// See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/530211/creating-a-blocking-queuet-in-net/530228#530228
/// </summary>
public sealed class SizeQueue<T>
{
    private readonly Queue<T> _queue = new Queue<T>();
    private readonly int _maxSize;
    private readonly object _syncRoot = new object();
    public SizeQueue(int maxSize)
    {
        _maxSize = maxSize;
    }
    public int Count
    {
        get
        {
            lock (_syncRoot)
            {
                return _queue.Count;
            }
        }
    }
    public object SyncRoot
    {
        get
        {
            return _syncRoot;
        }
    }
    /// <summary>
    /// Puts an item onto the queue
    /// </summary>
    public void Enqueue(T item)
    {
        lock (_syncRoot)
        {
            // don't enqueue new item if the max size has been met
            while (_queue.Count >= _maxSize)
            {
                Monitor.Wait(_syncRoot);
            }
            _queue.Enqueue(item);
            // wake up any blocked dequeue
            Monitor.PulseAll(_syncRoot);
        }
    }
    /// <summary>
    /// Returns the first item from the queue
    /// </summary>
    public T Dequeue()
    {
        return Dequeue(1).FirstOrDefault();
    }
    /// <summary>
    /// Returns the requested number of items from the head of the queue
    /// </summary>
    public IEnumerable<T> Dequeue(int count)
    {
        lock (_syncRoot)
        {
            // wait until there're items on the queue
            while (_queue.Count == 0)
            {
                Monitor.Wait(_syncRoot);
            }
            
            // read as many items off the queue as required (and possible)
            var items = new List<T>();
            while (count > 0 && _queue.Count > 0)
            {
                items.Add(_queue.Dequeue());
                count--;
            }
           return items;
        }
    }
}

1 thought on “Threading – thread-safe size capped queue”

  1. You need to pulse on the Dequeue as well, or else it won’t enqueue anymore if the queue fills up.

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