How to realize parallel loop in Delphi (Delphi 200X, Delphi XE) ? How to do this best way? And is there any universal solution?
With examples, please.
How to realize parallel loop in Delphi (Delphi 200X, Delphi XE) ? How to do this best way? And is there any universal solution?
With examples, please.
Probably the best solution at the moment is the Parallel For Loop construct in OmniThreadLibrary. You pass it a collection, or a pair of integers representing lower and upper bounds, and an anonymous method representing the loop body, and it uses a thread pool to run the for loop in parallel.
Note that this will only work if the loop body method is capable of standing on its own. If it modifies any external variables or relies on the value of a calculation made earlier in the loop then it can't be parallelized.
An introduction to the OmniThreadLibrary parallel for can be found here. For example, a simple for loop iterating over numbers looks like this:
Parallel.ForEach(1, testSize).Execute(
procedure (const elem: integer)
begin
// do something with 'elem'
end);
If you need only ParallelFor you can use this code:
interface
uses
Classes, SysUtils;
type
TParallelProc = reference to procedure(i: Integer; ThreadID: Integer);
TParallel = class(TThread)
private
FProc: TParallelProc;
FThreadID: Integer; //current thread ID
protected
procedure Execute; override;
function GetNextValue: Integer;
public
constructor Create;
destructor Destroy; override;
property Proc: TParallelProc
read FProc write FProc;
class var
CurrPos: Integer; //current loop index
MaxPos: Integer; //max loops index
cs: TCriticalSection;
ThCount: Integer; //thread counter - how much threads have finished execution
end;
{** ParallelFor Loop - all iterations will be performed in chosen threads
@param nMin - Loop min value (first iteration)
@param nMax - Loop max value (last iteration)
@param nThreads - how much threads to use
@param aProc - anonymous procedure which will be performed in loop thread
}
procedure ParallelFor(nMin, nMax, nThreads: Integer; aProc: TParallelProc); overload;
{** ParallelFor Loop - all iterations will be performed in max cpu cores
@param nMin - Loop min value (first iteration)
@param nMax - Loop max value (last iteration)
@param aProc - anonymous procedure which will be performed in loop thread
}
procedure ParallelFor(nMin, nMax: Integer; aProc: TParallelProc); overload;
implementation
uses
{$IFDEF MSWINDOWS}
Windows,
{$ENDIF}
SyncObjs;
procedure ParallelFor(nMin, nMax, nThreads: Integer; aProc: TParallelProc);
var
threads: array of TParallel;
I: Integer;
begin
if nMin > nMax then
Exit;
// initialize TParallel class data
TParallel.CurrPos := nMin;
TParallel.MaxPos := nMax;
TParallel.cs := TCriticalSection.Create;
TParallel.ThCount := 0;
// create the threads
SetLength (threads, nThreads);
for I := 0 to nThreads - 1 do
begin
threads[I] := TParallel.Create; // suspended
threads[I].FThreadID := I;
threads[I].Proc := aProc;
threads[I].Start;
end;
for I := 0 to nThreads - 1 do
begin
threads[I].WaitFor;
end;
for I := 0 to nThreads - 1 do
begin
threads[I].Free;
end;
TParallel.cs.Free;
end;
procedure ParallelFor(nMin, nMax: Integer; aProc: TParallelProc);
begin
ParallelFor(nMin, nMax, CPUCount, aProc);
end;
{ TParallel }
constructor TParallel.Create;
begin
inherited Create(True); // suspended
InterlockedIncrement(ThCount);
FreeOnTerminate := False;
FThreadID := 0;
end;
destructor TParallel.Destroy;
begin
InterlockedDecrement(ThCount);
inherited;
end;
procedure TParallel.Execute;
var
nCurrent: Integer;
begin
nCurrent := GetNextValue;
while nCurrent <= MaxPos do
begin
Proc(nCurrent, FThreadID);
nCurrent := GetNextValue;
end;
end;
function TParallel.GetNextValue: Integer;
begin
cs.Acquire;
try
Result := CurrPos;
Inc(CurrPos);
finally
cs.Release;
end;
end;
However, if you need more threading "stuff" you should consider using third party libraries.
Depends on what you mean by parallel loop and the application/implementation.
Take a look at TThread and TMultiReadExclusiveWriteSynchronizer.