April 5th, 2011
intriguing1 reaction

Lock-free algorithms: Choosing a unique value (warm-up)

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Here’s a snippet of code whose job is to generate a unique number within the process. Here’s some reference reading to get yourself in the mood. Caution: It may or may not be useful. 

dwUniqueId = InterlockedCompareExchange(&g_dwUniqueId,
                                        g_dwUniqueId+1,
                                        g_dwUniqueId);

Criticize this code fragment.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
Code

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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