How to determine file reading progress

How to determine file reading progress

• Phillip M. Hoff

  Mattias,

  Thanks! I'll give that a try.

  
  

• Dennis Rose

  You can try checking yourStreamReader.BaseStream.Position. I guess it could be a bit off though due to buffering done by the StreamReader.

   

   

  
  
  

• amanda.black

  Jon is correct, you should run this process in a seperate thread. It's more work but it is more elegant. If you're using the 2.0 Framework try using a BackgroundWorker (MSDN Link) which is designed specifically for this purpose and is designed for reporting back percent complete to progress bars and the such. Your user will get a much more responsive interface as well.

  Good luck!

  
  

• homeslick

  Christpher,

   

  That did the trick! Thanks!

  
  

• cgMarcos

  Try adding "System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();" after you update the value of the progress bar.
  

• russr

  You shouldn't really read the file in the UI thread. Calling Application.DoEvents is usually a sign that you should really be using a different thread to start with (and using Control.Invoke/BeginInvoke to query/update the UI).

  See my article on Windows Forms threading for more information.

  Jon

   

  
  
  

• Yabby

  Jon,

  Thanks for the tip, however, I am reading a HEX file into my bootloader and want to show the progress of the firmware programming as it progresses. I figured that showing the file read progress would be a good indication that the firmware update was actually taking place. This gives the nervous user some confidence that he did the right thing!

  
  

• Martin Sawicki

  You don't use Control.Invoke to read the file. You use a different thread to read the file, then Control.Invoke from that other thread to update the UI. (The delegate you pass in to do the update will actually be executed in the UI thread.)

  And yes, you definitely still do it in a different thread (IMO).

  Jon

  
  
  

• henry neo

  Thanks for the tip, however, I am reading a HEX file into my bootloader and want to show the progress of the firmware programming as it progresses. I figured that showing the file read progress would be a good indication that the firmware update was actually taking place. This gives the nervous user some confidence that he did the right thing!

  And that's why I suggested updating the UI, but doing so using Control.Invoke from another thread. There's no conflict between "don't lock up the UI thread" and "give the user feedback". See the article I referenced for more information.

  Jon

  
  
  

• stitch23

  You're welcome
  

• Bartosz Bien

  Is there some trick to updating the progressBar while I loop through a method The progress bar calculation works fine:

  progressBar1.Value=(int)((sr.BaseStream.Position/sr.BaseStream.Length)*100);

  ...but the progress bar does not get updated until I exit the method..

   

  
  

• Shri Borde

  Jon,

  Thanks again for the additional feedback. I have glanced through your article will study it later since it will fix another problem I am having.

  One question though. In my C# application  I am reading a HEX file line-by-line. Each line is approximately 40 characters long. After reading in the 40 character line I format it and send a command to my target device to program that line into flash memory. Since I am reading such short lines and processing them one-by-one, should I still use the Control.Invoke in another thread to read the file The whole read/write process takes about 5 seconds.

  
  

• ETJorg

  Jon,

  OK, thanks. I've got some homework to do.

  
  

• Paul Smith - Sagestore

  Christopher,

  Thanks. I'll give that a try also!

   

  
  
• How to determine file reading progress