I need to parse large text that is similar to XML. Because the text it is not in memory ( I have a StreamReader object) placing that stream on memory is where I take the most time. So on one thread I place that stream into an array (memory). And I have another thread that process that array. But I am having wierd behavieours. For example take a look at this image:

Note that listToProcess[counter] = buffer and right now that should be listToProcess[10] = buffer Note that the debugger says that listToProcess[10]=null why!? . the other thread just reads the items it does not modify them. At first I thought that maybe the other thread was making that item = null but that is not the case. why am I experiencing this behavior?
In case you want to see my code here it is:
Semaphore sem = new Semaphore(0, 1000000);
bool w;
bool done = false;
// this task is responsible for parsing text created by main thread. Main thread
// reads text from the stream and places chunks in listToProces[]
var task1 = Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
sem.WaitOne(); // wait so there are items on list (listToProcess) to work with
// counter to identify which chunk of char[] in listToProcess we are ading to the dictionary
int indexOnList = 0;
while (true)
{
if (listToProcess[indexOnList] == null)
{
if (done)
break;
w = true;
sem.WaitOne();
w = false;
if (done)
break;
if (listToProcess[indexOnList] == null)
{
throw new NotFiniteNumberException();
}
}
// add chunk to dictionary
ProcessChunk(listToProcess[indexOnList]);
indexOnList++;
}
}); // close task1
bool releaseSem = false;
// this main thread is responsible for placing the streamreader into chunks of char[] so that
// task1 can start processing those chunks
int counter = 0;
while (true)
{
char[] buffer = new char[2048];
// unparsedDebugInfo is a streamReader object
var charsRead = unparsedDebugInfo.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
if (charsRead < 1)
{
listToProcess[counter] = pattern;
break;
}
listToProcess[counter] = buffer;
counter++;
if (releaseSem)
{
sem.Release();
releaseSem = false;
}
if (counter == 10 || w)
{
releaseSem = true;
}
}
done = true;
sem.Release();
task1.Wait();
Edit
Sorry in other words why do I hit this break point:

I thought that counter was the problem but maybe I am doing something wrong with the semaphore...
chararrays in thelistToProcessarray. The code is doing exactly what its suppose to do, it sets the valuye ofreleaseSemto true. As to the reason the 11th element is null is because you added the 10th element then increased the counter to 10.counter. I updated the question you are right. sorry for not explaining my self correctly...