Note:

The HostProtectionAttribute attribute applied to this type or member has the following Resources property value: Synchronization. The HostProtectionAttribute does not affect desktop applications (which are typically started by double-clicking an icon, typing a command, or entering a URL in a browser). For more information, see the HostProtectionAttribute class or SQL Server Programming and Host Protection Attributes.

The Synchronized method is thread safe for multiple readers and writers. Furthermore, the synchronized wrapper ensures that there is only one writer writing at a time.

Enumerating through a collection is intrinsically not a thread-safe procedure. Even when a collection is synchronized, other threads can still modify the collection, which causes the enumerator to throw an exception. To guarantee thread safety during enumeration, you can either lock the collection during the entire enumeration or catch the exceptions resulting from changes made by other threads.

The following code example shows how to lock the collection using the SyncRoot during the entire enumeration:

Dim myCollection As New Hashtable()
 Dim item As Object
 SyncLock myCollection.SyncRoot
  For Each item In myCollection
  ' Insert your code here.
  Next item
 End SyncLock

This method is an O(1) operation.

The following example shows how to synchronize a Hashtable, determine if a Hashtable is synchronized, and use a synchronized Hashtable.

Imports System
Imports System.Collections

Public Class SamplesHashtable    

    Public Shared Sub Main()

        ' Creates and initializes a new Hashtable.
        Dim myHT As New Hashtable()
        myHT.Add(0, "zero")
        myHT.Add(1, "one")
        myHT.Add(2, "two")
        myHT.Add(3, "three")
        myHT.Add(4, "four")

        ' Creates a synchronized wrapper around the Hashtable.
        Dim mySyncdHT As Hashtable = Hashtable.Synchronized(myHT)

        ' Displays the sychronization status of both Hashtables.
        Dim msg As String
        If myHT.IsSynchronized Then
            msg = "synchronized"
        Else
            msg = "not synchronized"
        End If
        Console.WriteLine("myHT is {0}.", msg)
        If mySyncdHT.IsSynchronized Then
            msg = "synchronized"
        Else
            msg = "not synchronized"
        End If        
        Console.WriteLine("mySyncdHT is {0}.", msg)
    End Sub
End Class

' This code produces the following output.
' 
' myHT is not synchronized.
' mySyncdHT is synchronized. 

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

.NET Framework

.NET Compact Framework

XNA Framework

Reference