.NET library that provides thread-safe collections that automatically remove their elements after a particular time has passed. Each instance of a decaying collection has a timespan specified which is used as a lifespan for its elements.
Currently there are two implemented Decaying collections:
DecayingHashSet<TItem>- behaves like HashSet but with decaying behavior. Does not implement ISet;DecayingBag<TItem>- allows repetitions but stil unordered;DecayingDictionary<TKey, TValue>- Dictionary with decaying behavior, implements IDictionary;
Warning: Decaying collections use System.Threading.Timer internally. See MSDN for details on possible implications.
All decaying collections inherit from the abstract class DecayingCollection<TItem, TCollection> where TCollection is ICollection<TItem>. This class instantiates steps (an optional argument of decaying collection constructors) ICollection instances in a "ring". One of the collections is marked as current. All items are added to the collection in the current step.
A timer is configured to notify the DecayingCollection on lifespan (constructor argument) divided by steps seconds. Each time the ring rotated and the next collection is set to current. All items in the new current collection are removed (they have decayed). ItemDecayed event is raised for each item which has decayed.