Returning a value from thread?

I would use the BackgroundWorker approach and return the result in e.Result.

EDIT:

This is commonly associated with WinForms and WPF, but can be used by any type of .NET application. Here's sample code for a console app that uses BackgroundWorker:

using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace BGWorker
{
    class Program
    {
        static bool done = false;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            BackgroundWorker bg = new BackgroundWorker();
            bg.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(bg_DoWork);
            bg.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(bg_RunWorkerCompleted);
            bg.RunWorkerAsync();

            while (!done)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Waiting in Main, tid " + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
                Thread.Sleep(100);
            }
        }

        static void bg_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Completed, tid " + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
            done = true;
        }

        static void bg_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
        {
            for (int i = 1; i <= 5; i++)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Work Line: " + i + ", tid " + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
                Thread.Sleep(500);
            }
        }
    }
}

Output:

Waiting in Main, tid 10
Work Line: 1, tid 6
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Work Line: 2, tid 6
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Work Line: 3, tid 6
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting in Main, tid 10
Waiting