Throw a NullReferenceException while calling the set_item method of a Dictionary object in a multi-threading scenario

Question

Our website has a configuration page such as "config.aspx", when the page initializing will load some information from a configuration file. To cache the loaded information we provided a factory class and we call a public method of the factory to get the configuration instance when the page loaded. But sometimes when the Application Pool is restarted, we found some error message in the Event Log such as below:

Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Stack:   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.Insert(TKey key, TValue value, Boolean add)
   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.set_Item(TKey key, TValue value)
   at ObjectFactory.GetInstance(string key)
   at config.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.Util.CalliHelper.EventArgFunctionCaller(IntPtr fp, Object o, Object t, EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.Util.CalliEventHandlerDelegateProxy.Callback(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive()
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)

The factory class implements like below:

public static class ObjectFactory
{
    private static object _InternalSyncObject;
    private static Dictionary _Instances;

    private static object InternalSyncObject
    {
        get
        {
            if (_InternalSyncObject == null)
            {
                var @object = new object();
                Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref _InternalSyncObject, @object, null);
            }

            return _InternalSyncObject;
        }
    }

    private static Dictionary Instances
    {
        get
        {
            if (_Instances == null)
            {
                lock (InternalSyncObject)
                {
                    if (_Instances == null)
                    {
                        _Instances = new Dictionary();
                    }
                }
            }

            return _Instances;
        }
    }

    private static object LoadInstance(string key)
    {
        object obj = null;

        // some statements to load an specific instance from a configuration file.

        return obj;
    }

    public static object GetInstance(string key)
    {
        object instance;

        if (false == Instances.TryGetValue(key, out instance))
        {
            instance = LoadInstance(key);

            Instances[key] = instance;
        }

        return instance;
    }
} 

I guess the exception was thrown by the line "Instances[key] = instance;", because its the only code that could call set_Item method of a dictionary. But if the "Instances" value is null, it will thrown a NullReferenceException when calling the TryGetValue method and the top frame of the stacktrace should be the GetInstance not the Insert. Does anyone know how the dictionary could throw a NullReferenceException when call the set_Item method in multi-threading scenario?

Answer 1

As the exception occurs internally in the Dictionary code, it means that you are accessing the same Dictionary instance from more than one thread at the same time.

You need to synchronise the code in the GetInstance method so that only one thread at a time accesses the Dictionary.

Edit:
Lock around the accesses separately, so that you aren't inside a lock while doing the (supposedly) time consuming loading:

private static object _sync = new object();

public static object GetInstance(string key) {
   object instance = null;
   bool found;
   lock (_sync) {
      found = Instances.TryGetValue(key, out instance);
   }
   if (!found) {
      instance = LoadInstance(key);
      lock (_sync) {
         object current;
         if (Instances.TryGetValue(key, out current)) {
            // some other thread already loaded the object, so we use that instead
            instance = current;
         } else {
            Instances[key] = instance;
         }
      }
   }
   return instance;
}