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Using Interlocked.Exchange to make a Thread Safe Variable Replacement

When trying to replace static variables in a class, I always used a static object for doing a lock() before the update.

public class SomeClass
{
  private static readonly object theLock = new object();
  private List<string> theList = new List<string>();

  private void SomeMethod()
  {
    lock(theList)
    {
      theList = new List<string>();  // this is supposed to be a replacement with a different list

    }
  }
}

A slightly more elegant way can be used with the System.Threading.Interlocked.Exchange method.

public class SomeClass
{
  private List<string> theList = new List<string>();

  private void SomeMethod()
  {
    Interlocked.Exchange(ref theList, new List<string>);
  }
}

Not a huge thing, but still handy to have if you prefer slightly cleaner looking code.

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