FOUNDATION OF ASYNCHRONOUS PROGRAMMING

The async and await keywords are just a compiler feature. The compiler creates code by using the Task class. Instead of using the new keywords, you could get the same functionality with C# 4 and methods of the Task class; it‘s just not as convenient.

This section gives information about what the compiler does with the async and await keywords, an easy way to create an asynchronous method, how you can invoke multiple asynchronous methods in parallel, and how you can change a class that just offers the asynchronous pattern to use the new keywords.

Creating Tasks

Let‘s start with the synchronous method Greeting, which takes a while before returning a string (code file Foundations/Program.cs):

    static string Greeting(string name)
    {
      Thread.Sleep(3000);
      return string.Format("Hello, {0}", name);
    }

To make such a method asynchronously, the method GreetingAsync is defined. The task-based asynchronous pattern specifies that an asynchronous method is named with the Async suffix and returns a task. GreetingAsync is defined to have the same input parameters as the Greeting method but returns Task<string>. Task<string>, which defines a task that returns a string in the future. A simple way to return a task is by using the Task.Run method. The generic version Task.Run<string>() creates a task that returns a string:

    static Task<string> GreetingAsync(string name)
    {
      return Task.Run<string>(() =>
        {
          return Greeting(name);
        });
    }

Calling an Asynchronous Method

You can call this asynchronous method GreetingAsync by using the await keyword on the task that is returned. The await keyword requires the method to be declared with the async modifier. The code within this method does not continue before the GreetingAsync method is completed. However, the thread that started the CallerWithAsync method can be reused. This thread is not blocked:

    private async static void CallerWithAsync()
    {
      string result = await GreetingAsync("Stephanie");
      Console.WriteLine(result);
    }

Instead of passing the result from the asynchronous method to a variable, you can also use the await keyword directly within parameters. Here, the result from the GreetingAsync method is awaited like in the previously code snippet, but this time the result is directly passed to the Console.WriteLine method:

    private async static void CallerWithAsync2()
    {
      Console.WriteLine(await GreetingAsync("Stephanie"));
    }

Note

The async modifier can only be used with methods returning a Task or void. It cannot be used with the entry point of a program, the Main method. await can only be used with methods returning a Task.

In the next section you‘ll see what‘s driving this await keyword. Behind the scenes, continuation tasks are used.

Continuation with Tasks

GreetingAsync returns a Task<string> object. The Task object contains information about the task created, and allows waiting for its completion. The ContinueWith method of the Task class defines the code that should be invoked as soon as the task is finished. The delegate assigned to the ContinueWith method receives the completed task with its argument, which allows accessing the result from the task using the Result property:

    private static void CallerWithContinuationTask()
    {
      Task<string> t1 = GreetingAsync("Stephanie");
      t1.ContinueWith(t =>
        {
          string result = t.Result;
          Console.WriteLine(result);
        });
    }

The compiler converts the await keyword by putting all the code that follows within the block of a ContinueWith method.

Synchronization Context

If you verify the thread that is used within the methods you will find that in both methods, CallerWithAsync and CallerWithContinuationTask, different threads are used during the lifetime of the methods. One thread is used to invoke the method GreetingAsync, and another thread takes action after the await keyword or within the code block in the ContinueWith method.

With a console application usually this is not an issue. However, you have to ensure that at least one foreground thread is still running before all background tasks that should be completed are finished. The sample application invokes Console.ReadLine to keep the main thread running until the return key is pressed.

With applications that are bound to a specific thread for some actions (e.g., with WPF applications, UI elements can only be accessed from the UI thread), this is an issue.

Using the async and await keywords you don‘t have to do any special actions to access the UI thread after an await completion. By default the generated code switches the thread to the thread that has the synchronization context. A WPF application sets a DispatcherSynchronizationContext, and a Windows Forms application sets a WindowsFormsSynchronizationContext. If the calling thread of the asynchronous method is assigned to the synchronization context, then with the continuous execution after the await, by default the same synchronization context is used. If the same synchronization context shouldn‘t be used, you must invoke the Task method ConfigureAwait(continueOnCapturedContext: false). An example that illustrates this usefulness is a WPF application in which the code that follows the await is not using any UI elements. In this case, it is faster to avoid the switch to the synchronization context.

Using Multiple Asynchronous Methods

Within an asynchronous method you can call not only one but multiple asynchronous methods. How you code this depends on whether the results from one asynchronous method are needed by another.

Calling Asynchronous Methods Sequentially

The await keyword can be used to call every asynchronous method. In cases where one method is dependent on the result of another method, this is very useful. Here, the second call to GreetingAsync is completely independent of the result of the first call to GreetingAsync. Thus, the complete method MultipleAsyncMethods could return the result faster if await is not used with every single method, as shown in the following example:

    private async static void MultipleAsyncMethods()
    {
      string s1 = await GreetingAsync("Stephanie");
      string s2 = await GreetingAsync("Matthias");
      Console.WriteLine("Finished both methods.\n " +
          "Result 1: {0}\n Result 2: {1}", s1, s2);
    }

Using Combinators

If the asynchronous methods are not dependent on each other, it is a lot faster not to await on each separately, and instead assign the return of the asynchronous method to a Task variable. The GreetingAsync method returns Task<string>. Both these methods can now run in parallel. Combinators can help with this. A combinator accepts multiple parameters of the same type and returns a value of the same type. The passed parameters are "combined" to one. Task combinators accept multiple Task objects as parameter and return a Task.

The sample code invokes the Task.WhenAll combinator method that you can await to have both tasks finished:

    private async static void MultipleAsyncMethodsWithCombinators1()
    {
      Task<string> t1 = GreetingAsync("Stephanie");
      Task<string> t2 = GreetingAsync("Matthias");
      await Task.WhenAll(t1, t2);
      Console.WriteLine("Finished both methods.\n " +
          "Result 1: {0}\n Result 2: {1}", t1.Result, t2.Result);
    }

The Task class defines the WhenAll and WhenAny combinators. The Task returned from the WhenAll method is completed as soon as all tasks passed to the method are completed; the Task returned from the WhenAny method is completed as soon as one of the tasks passed to the method is completed.

The WhenAll method of the Task type defines several overloads. If all the tasks return the same type, an array of this type can be used for the result of the await. The GreetingAsync method returns a Task<string>, and awaiting for this method results in a string. Therefore, Task.WhenAll can be used to return a string array:

    private async static void MultipleAsyncMethodsWithCombinators2()
    {
      Task<string> t1 = GreetingAsync("Stephanie");
      Task<string> t2 = GreetingAsync("Matthias");
      string[] result = await Task.WhenAll(t1, t2);
      Console.WriteLine("Finished both methods.\n " +
          "Result 1: {0}\n Result 2: {1}", result[0], result[1]);
    }

Converting the Asynchronous Pattern

Not all classes from the .NET Framework introduced the new asynchronous method style with .NET 4.5. There are still many classes just offering the asynchronous pattern with BeginXXX and EndXXX methods and not task-based asynchronous methods as you will see when working with different classes from the framework.

First, let‘s create an asynchronous method from the previously-defined synchronous method Greeting with the help of a delegate. The Greeting method receives a string as parameter and returns a string, thus a variable of Func<string, string> delegate is used to reference this method. According to the asynchronous pattern, the BeginGreeting method receives a string parameter in addition to AsyncCallback and object parameters and returns IAsyncResult. The EndGreeting method returns the result from the Greeting method—a string—and receives an IAsyncResult parameter. With the implementation just the delegate is used to make the implementation asynchronously.

    private static Func<string, string> greetingInvoker = Greeting;

    static IAsyncResult BeginGreeting(string name, AsyncCallback callback,
      object state)
    {
      return greetingInvoker.BeginInvoke(name, callback, state);
    }

    static string EndGreeting(IAsyncResult ar)
    {
      return greetingInvoker.EndInvoke(ar);
    }

Now the BeginGreeting and EndGreeting methods are available, and these should be converted to use the async and await keywords to get the results. The TaskFactory class defines the FromAsync method that allows converting methods using the asynchronous pattern to the TAP.

With the sample code, the first generic parameter of the Task type, Task<string>, defines the return value from the method that is invoked. The generic parameter of the FromAsync method defines the input type of the method. In this case the input type is again of type string. With the parameters of the FromAsync method, the first two parameters are delegate types to pass the addresses of the BeginGreeting and EndGreeting methods. After these two parameters, the input parameters and the object state parameter follow. The object state is not used, so null is assigned to it. Because the FromAsync method returns a Task type, in the sample code Task<string>, an await can be used as shown:

    private static async void ConvertingAsyncPattern()
    {
      string s = await Task<string>.Factory.FromAsync<string>(
        BeginGreeting, EndGreeting, "Angela", null);
      Console.WriteLine(s);
    }