Thread spawning

[Allan Ebdrup]

I'm inside a function where I have a static cache, when the cache needs to
be updated I want to do it asyncronously, because updating the cache takes a
while. I want to use thread safety when writing and reading the cache (a
Mutex?)

Private Function Count(ByVal Guid)As Int32
Static Dim countResults As Hashtable = New Hashtable
Static Dim countResultTime stamps As Hashtable = New Hashtable
'Here I want to call CacheUpdateCoun t(countResults,
countResultTime stamps, Guid) in a new asyncronous thread updating the static
cache
Return countResults(Gu id)
End function

Private Function CacheUpdateCoun t(ByRef countResults As Hashtable, ByRef
countResultTime stamps As Hashtable, ByVal Guid)
'Update static cache
end function

1 ) How do I spawn a new thread calling the CacheUpdateCoun t() method?
2) How do I ensure that I don't read and write the cache at the same time?

Kind Regards,
Allan Ebdrup