Alternative to BackgroundWorker that accepts more than one argument?

Question

The BackgroundWorker object allows us to pass a single argument into the DoWorkEventHandler.

// setup/init:
BackgroundWorker endCallWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
endCallWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(EndCallWorker_DoWork);
...
endCallWorker.RunWorkerAsync(userName);

// the handler:
private void EndCallWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    string userName = e.Argument as string;
    ...
}

To pass multiple arguments, I must wrap them in an object, like this poor string array:

// setup/init:

BackgroundWorker startCallWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
startCallWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(StartCallWorker_DoWork);
...
startCallWorker.RunWorkerAsync(new string[]{userName, targetNumber});


// the handler:
private void StartCallWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    string[] args = e.Argument as string[];
    string userName = args[0];
    string targetNumber = args[1];
}

Is there another object or pattern that allows us pass multiple arguments nicely, or ideally, write our own signature?

Answer 1

You could use a closure (Lambda):

backgroundWorker.DoWork += (s, e) => MyWorkMethod(userName, targetNumber);

Or with delegate (anonymous method) syntax:

backgroundWorker.DoWork += 
    delegate(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
    {
        MyWorkMethod(userName, targetNumber);
    };