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C# for loop with Task array IndexOutOfRangeException [duplicate]

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IndexOutOfRangeException exception when using tasks in for loop in C#
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What is an IndexOutOfRangeException / ArgumentOutOfRangeException and how do I fix it?
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Closed 3 years ago.
im starting 10 tasks to get result from web api. Im get IndexOutOfRangeException on offsets array. But how its posible.
Actually 'i' variable canot be greater or equal that 10.
Can anyone help with this?
For loop not working corectly?
times = 10;
Task[] tasks = new Task[times];
int[] offsets = new int[times];
for (int i = 0; i < times; i++)
{
offsets[i] = offset;
tasks[i] = Task.Run(() => SearchLocalByQuery(query, offsets[i], (i + 1)));
offset += Limit;
}
Task.WaitAll(tasks);
i = 10,
i cannot be 10 in for loop off this example.
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: 'Index was outside the bounds of the array.'

i cannot be 10 in for loop off this example.
It can be in the lambda expression. This expression:
() => SearchLocalByQuery(query, offsets[i], (i + 1))
captures the variable i, and will evaluate that variable value whenever it is executed. Task.Run returns immediately but won't necessarily have started executing the delegate yet - so it's entirely possible that the loop has moved onto the next iteration, or completed, before i is evaluated.
The simple fix for this is to declare a local variable to capture i inside the loop:
for (int i = 0; i < times; i++)
{
int copy = i;
offsets[i] = offset;
// Make sure we only use copy within the lambda expression
tasks[i] = Task.Run(() => SearchLocalByQuery(query, offsets[copy], copy + 1));
offset += Limit;
}
Now there'll be a fresh copy variable for each iteration of the loop, and that variable will never change its value - so the lambda expression will execute using "the value of i for that iteration of the loop" regardless of what the current value of i is.

Task.Factory.StartNew() generating object not initialzed error

I have this simple function,working as a task, that only print the values of a dataset. I pass the dataset from main function, and the index. The problem is that i have populated only 2 dataset index, however the function always jumps one ahead, i.e. in the last iteration it would want to start reading index 2, which is uninitialized and therefore the exception.
for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
tasks.Add(Task.Factory.StartNew(() => {
int a = i;
showNodeID(dataSet,a);
}));
}
and the function is
private static void showNodeID(DataSet[] ds, int a)
{
Console.WriteLine(a.ToString());
Console.WriteLine(ds[a].GetXml());
} //END
In the last iteration when i print 1 however in function if i print a it would be 2.

I assume you are aware of the dangers of captured counter variables in lambda closures, since you attempt to avoid the issue by assigning the counter to a locally-scoped variable. However, your assignment is happening too late – by the time the task starts and copies the value, the counter might already have been incremented by the next iteration. To properly avoid the issue, you need to copy the value before the task, not within it:
for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
int a = i;
tasks.Add(Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
showNodeID(dataSet, a);
}));
}
If you just need to perform a parallel loop, you could alternatively use:
Parallel.For(0, 2, i => showNodeID(dataSet, i));

ArgumentOutOfRangeException. But it should not be there

So I have and method like this.
var someColletion = _someService.GetSomeCollection(someParam);
var taskCollection = new Task<double>[someCollection.Count];
for (int i = 0; i < taskCollection.Length; i++)
{
// do some stuff on the i-th element of someCollection and taskCollection
// and start the i-th task
}
Task.WaitAll(taskCollection);
double total = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < taskCollection.Length; i++)
{
// get the result of each task and sum it in total variable
}
return total;
the case is when it comes into first for loop and the number of elements in both collections are suppose 1 the ArgumentOutOfRangeException is being thrown and then AggregateException is being thrown on Task.WaitAll() because the i becomes 1 (I don't know why but it does) and when it tries to access the i-th (second) element in array that contains just one element, this happens. But there is more to this. If i set a break point before first loop and go step by step then this thing does not happen. when i becomes one the cycle ends. and everything's okay. now the method I provided above is called by an ASP.NET MVC Controller's Action which itself is called Asynchronously (by ajax call) suppose 3 times. and out of this three just one executes correctly other two do the thing I said above (if not breakpointed). I think that this problem is caused by ajax call most probably because when I breakpoint it stops other calls from executing. Can anyone suggest anything ?

I suspect you're using i within the first loop, capturing it with a lambda expression or anonymous method, like this:
for (int i = 0; i < taskCollection.Length; i++)
{
taskCollection[i] = Task.Run(() => Console.WriteLine(i));
}
If that's the case, it's the variable i which is being captured - not the value of the variable for that iteration of the loop. So by the time the task actually executes, it's likely that the value of i has changed. The solution is to take a copy of the iteration variable within the loop, in a separate "new" variable, and capture that in the anonymous function instead:
for (int i = 0; i < taskCollection.Length; i++)
{
int copy = i;
taskCollection[i] = Task.Run(() => Console.WriteLine(copy));
}
That way, each task captures a separate variable, whose value never changes.

Why c# doesn't preserve the context for an anonymous delegate calls?

I have the following method:
static Random rr = new Random();
static void DoAction(Action a)
{
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(par =>
{
Thread.Sleep(rr.Next(200));
a.Invoke();
});
}
now I call this in a for loop like this:
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
var x = i;
DoAction(() =>
{
Console.WriteLine(i); // scenario 1
//Console.WriteLine(x); // scenario 2
});
}
in scenario 1 the output is: 10 10 10 10 ... 10
in scenario 2 the output is: 2 6 5 8 4 ... 0 (random permutation of 0 to 9)
How do you explain this? Is c# not supposed to preserve variables (here i) for the anonymous delegate call?

The problem here is that there is one i variable and ten instances / copies of x. Each lambda gets a reference to the single variable i and one of the instances of x. Every x is only written to once and hence each lambda sees the one value which was written to the value it references.
The variable i is written to until it reaches 10. None of the lambdas run until the loop completes so they all see the final value of i which is 10
I find this example is a bit clearer if you rewrite it as follows
int i = 0; // Single i for every iteration of the loop
while (i < 10) {
int x = i; // New x for every iteration of the loop
DoAction(() => {
Console.WriteLine(i);
Console.WriteLine(x);
});
i++;
};

DoAction spawns the thread, and returns right away. By the time the thread awakens from its random sleep, the loop will be finished, and the value of i will have advanced all the way to 10. The value of x, on the other hand, is captured and frozen before the call, so you will get all values from 0 to 9 in a random order, depending on how long each thread gets to sleep based on your random number generator.

I think you'll get the same result with java or any Object oriented Language (not sure but here it seems logical).
The scope of i is for the whole loop and the scope of x is for each occurrence.
Resharper helps you top spot this kind of problem.

Creating an Array of Threads in C#

I have a very strange problem with my code. It will fully run the 1st for loop, then complete the foreach, but then it will skip back to the "ThreadStart IMAPDelegate" (line 1 of the for loop) and then crash because of an ArgumentOutOfRangeException. Can someone explain why the program is doing this? I debugged it line by line and it literally just skips back up into the a line in the for loop. If it had normally run the for loop again, it would have set x back to 0 and it would not have crashed. Any suggestions?
for (int x = 0; x < UserInfo.Count; x++)
{
ThreadStart IMAPDelegate = delegate{SendParams(UserInfo[x], IMAPServers[x]); };
MyThreads.Add(new Thread(IMAPDelegate));
}
foreach (Thread thread in MyThreads)
{
thread.Start();
}

This is by design when you use an anonymous method like that. As soon as the thread starts running, it executes the SendParams() method call. Which then bombs because the "x" variable is already incremented beyond UserInfo.Count. Fix:
for (int x = 0; x < UserInfo.Count; x++)
{
int user = x;
ThreadStart IMAPDelegate = delegate{SendParams(UserInfo[user], IMAPServers[user]); };
MyThreads.Add(new Thread(IMAPDelegate));
}