Develop Reference

How can I cancel an asynchronous task after a given time and how can I restart a failed task?

How can I cancel an asynchronous task when it takes very long to complete it or if it will probably never complete? Is it possible to use a given time(for example 10 seconds) for each task and when it doesn't complete in this given time, then the task will automatically be cancelled?
Is it possible to restart a task or create the same task again after it failed? What can I do if one of the tasks in a task list fails? Is it possible to only restart the failed task?
In my code, playerCountryDataUpdate should only be executed after each task in TasksList1 completed without error or exception. I want to restart a task when it fails. When the same task fails again, then don't restart it and display an error message on the screen. How can I do that?
bool AllMethods1Completed = false;
bool AllMethods2Completed = false;
public async Task PlayerAccountDetails()
{
var playerCountryDataGet = GetPlayerCountryData();
var playerTagsData = GetPlayerTagsData();
var TasksList1 = new List<Task> { playerCountryDataGet, playerTagsData };
try
{
await Task.WhenAll(TasksList1);
AllMethods1Completed = true;
}
catch
{
AllMethods1Completed = false;
}
if (AllMethods1Completed == true)
{
var playerCountryDataUpdate = UpdatePlayerCountryData("Germany", "Berlin");
var TasksList2 = new List<Task> { playerCountryDataUpdate };
try
{
await Task.WhenAll(TasksList2);
AllMethods2Completed = true;
}
catch
{
AllMethods2Completed = false;
}
}
}
private async Task GetPlayerTagsData()
{
var resultprofile = await PlayFabServerAPI.GetPlayerTagsAsync(new PlayFab.ServerModels.GetPlayerTagsRequest()
{
PlayFabId = PlayerPlayFabID
});
if (resultprofile.Error != null)
Console.WriteLine(resultprofile.Error.GenerateErrorReport());
else
{
if ((resultprofile.Result != null) && (resultprofile.Result.Tags.Count() > 0))
PlayerTag = resultprofile.Result.Tags[0].ToString();
}
}
private async Task GetPlayerCountryData()
{
var resultprofile = await PlayFabClientAPI.GetUserDataAsync(new PlayFab.ClientModels.GetUserDataRequest()
{
PlayFabId = PlayerPlayFabID,
Keys = null
});
if (resultprofile.Error != null)
Console.WriteLine(resultprofile.Error.GenerateErrorReport());
else
{
if (resultprofile.Result.Data == null || !resultprofile.Result.Data.ContainsKey("Country") || !resultprofile.Result.Data.ContainsKey("City"))
Console.WriteLine("No Country/City");
else
{
PlayerCountry = resultprofile.Result.Data["Country"].Value;
PlayerCity = resultprofile.Result.Data["City"].Value;
}
}
}
private async Task UpdatePlayerCountryData(string country, string city)
{
var resultprofile = await PlayFabClientAPI.UpdateUserDataAsync(new PlayFab.ClientModels.UpdateUserDataRequest()
{
Data = new Dictionary<string, string>() {
{"Country", country},
{"City", city}
},
Permission = PlayFab.ClientModels.UserDataPermission.Public
});
if (resultprofile.Error != null)
Console.WriteLine(resultprofile.Error.GenerateErrorReport());
else
Console.WriteLine("Successfully updated user data");
}

You need to build a cancellation mechanism directly into the task itself. C# provides a CancellationTokenSource and CancellationToken classes to assist with this. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.cancellationtoken?view=netcore-3.1
Add an (optional) CancellationToken to your task's parameters. Then check the token at appropriate intervals to determine if the task needs to abort before it completes.
In the case of a long running query, it would be best to figure out how to break the query into chunks and then check the CancellationToken between queries.
private async Task GetPlayerXXXData(CancellationToken ct = null) {
int limit = 100;
int total = Server.GetPlayerXXXCount();
List<PlayerXXXData> results = new List<PlayerXXXData>();
while((ct == null || ct.IsCancellationRequested) && result.Count < total) {
result.AddRange(Server.GetPlayerXXXData(result.Count, limit));
}
return results;
}
Mind the above has no error handling in it; but you get the idea. You might consider making it faster (to start using the data) by implementing Deferred Execution with your own custom IEnumerable implementation. Then you can query one chunk and iterate over that chunk before querying for the next chunk. This could also help prevent you from loading too much into RAM - depending upon the number of records you are intending to process.

set timeout in your logic to suspend the task:
int timeout = 1000;
var task = SomeOperationAsync();
if (await Task.WhenAny(task, Task.Delay(timeout)) == task) {
// task completed within timeout
} else {
// timeout logic
}
Asynchronously wait for Task<T> to complete with timeout
and also put try catch blocks in a while loop with a flag until you want to retry
var retry=0;
while (retry<=3)
{
try{
await with timeout
raise timeout exception
}
catch(catch timeout exception here )
{
retry++;
if(retry ==3)
{
throw the catched exception here
}
}
}

How to run looping task untill other task is finished

I found many questions addressing how to sequence tasks and waiting until all tasks finish, but with this topic, I found only 1 question from 2016 with no answers.
I'm processing a large text file in my project and I want to indicate that this process is running with the text being displayed with changing number of dots after the "Processing" text. I got to the point, where the intended looping task is working until a long working task finishes and the proper field in the VM is updated, but I can't make looping task to be delayed so dots are changing in the way it's seen.
In other words - the same functionality as when a loader is displayed while data are being retrieved from the HTTP request.
public void SetRawTextFromAbsPath(string path)
{
if (!File.Exists(path))
{
return;
}
var rawText = "Processing";
bool IsReadingFileFinished = false;
Task<string> getRawTextFromAbsPath = Task.Run(() => {
var result = FileProcessingServices.GetRawFileText(path);
IsReadingFileFinished = true;
return result;
});
Task updateProgressText = Task.Run(async () =>
{
while (!IsReadingFileFinished)
{
rawText = await Task.Run(() => ProcessingTextChange(rawText));
SelectedFileRaw = rawText;
}
});
Task.WaitAll(getRawTextFromAbsPath, updateProgressText);
SelectedFileRaw = completeRawText.Result;
}
public string ProcessingTextChange(string text)
{
Task.Delay(100);
var dotsCount = text.Count<char>(ch => ch == '.');
return dotsCount < 6 ? text + "." : text.Replace(".", "");
}
After learning from all the answers, I come up with this solution:
private const string PROGRESS = "Progress";
private const int PROGRESS_DELAY = 200;
public async void RunProgressTextUpdate()
{
var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
if (!IsRunning)
{
UpdateProgressTextTask(cts.Token);
string longTaskText = await Task.Run(() => LongTask(cts));
await Task.Delay(PROGRESS_DELAY);
ProgressText = longTaskText;
}
}
private void UpdateProgressTextTask(CancellationToken token)
{
Task.Run(async () =>
{
ProgressText = PROGRESS;
while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
await Task.Delay(PROGRESS_DELAY);
var dotsCount = ProgressText.Count<char>(ch => ch == '.');
ProgressText = dotsCount < 6 ? ProgressText + "." : ProgressText.Replace(".", "");
}
});
}
private string LongTask(CancellationTokenSource cts)
{
var result = Task.Run(async () =>
{
await Task.Delay(5000);
cts.Cancel();
return "Long task finished.";
});
return result.Result;
}

Every way of creating Task and running them is overloaded to expect a CancellationToken. CancellationTokens are, unsurprinsignly, structs that allows us to cancel Tasks.
Having this two methods
public void DelayedWork()
{
Task.Run(async () =>
{
// Simulate some async work
await Task.Delay(1000);
});
}
public void LoopingUntilDelayedWorkFinishes()
{
Task.Run(() =>
{
int i = 0;
// We keep looping until the Token is not cancelled
while (true) // May be?
{
Console.WriteLine($"{++i} iteration ...");
}
});
}
We want LoopingUntilDelayedWorkFinishes to stop looping when DelayedWork finishes (well, naming was quite obvious).
We can provide a CancellationToken to our LoopingUntilDelayedWorkFinishes method. So it will keep looping until it is cancelled.
public void LoopingUntilDelayedWorkFinishes(CancellationToken token)
{
Task.Run(() =>
{
int i = 0;
// We keep looping until the Token is not cancelled
while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{++i} iteration ...");
}
}, token); // This is the overload expecting the Token
}
Okay, working. We can control this CancellationToken by extracting from a CancellationTokenSource, which controls its CancellationToken.
var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
p.LoopingUntilDelayedWorkFinishes(cts.Token);
And now, we need our DelayedWork to cancel the token when it finishes.
public void DelayedWork(CancellationTokenSource cts)
{
Task.Run(async () =>
{
// Simulate some async work
await Task.Delay(1000);
// Once it is done, we cancel.
cts.Cancel();
});
}
That is how we could call the methods.
var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
p.DelayedWork(cts);
p.LoopingUntilDelayedWorkFinishes(cts.Token);
The call order between DelayedWork and LoopingUntilDelayedWorkFinishes is not that important (in that case).
Maybe LoopingUntilDelayedWorkFinishes can return a Task and the await for it later on, I don't know. I just depends on our needs.
There are tons of ways to achieve this. The environment arround Task is so bast and the API is quite confusing sometimes.
Here's how you could do it. Maybe some smart use of async/await syntax would improve the solution I gave. But, here's the main idea.
Hope it helps.

Run parallel validation of Uri using WebRequest

Let's say I have more Uri's. I need to validate, if they are reachable.
public RelayCommand TestConnectionCommand => new RelayCommand(async () =>
{
var res1 = await ValidateUriAsync(uri);
var res2 = await ValidateUriAsync(uri);
});
private async Task<bool> ValidateUriAsync(Uri uri)
{
try
{
var request = WebRequest.CreateHttp(uri);
var result = await request.GetResponseAsync();
return true;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
return false;
}
}
When the program comes to first await it takes some time to validate the uri, after I get the result, I can show the result on the View. Then program goes next and I validate second uri. I'd like to do that parallel, without awaiting. I was thinking about using Begin/EndGetResponse. I need to show the result for each validation on the View. Validation succeeded/failed.
Many thanks for advice.

When using await you stop the execution until the task returns, instead wait for all task to finish:
var task1 = ValidateUriAsync(uri);
var task2 = ValidateUriAsync(uri);
await Task.WhenAll(task1, task2);
or to wait until the first fault:
var tasks = new List<Task>
{
ValidateUriAsync(), ValidateUriAsync(uri)
};
while (tasks.Any())
{
var t = await Task.WhenAny(tasks);
if (t.IsFaulted)
{
//Faulty
break;
}
tasks.Remove(t);
}

Ping ASync Problems

I have to have a breakpoint on the indicated line below for the following code to work. Otherwise, the program just pauses indefinitely.
async Task<List<PingReply>> PingAsync()
{
var pingTargetHosts = GetIPs();
var pingTasks = pingTargetHosts.Select(host => new Ping().SendPingAsync(host, 2000)).ToList();
var pingResults = await Task.WhenAll(pingTasks); //THIS LINE NEEDS A BREAKPOINT TO WORK
return pingResults.ToList();
}
The code is called like this
List<PingReply> GetReplies()
{
var PingIPs = PingAsync();
MessageBox.Show("Loading:...");
List<PingReply> Results = PingIPs.Result;
return Results;
}
Could anyone tell me how I need to amend my code in order to remove the breakpoint but still have a functional piece of code.
EDIT:
Not tested, but 99% sure this will work.
async Task<List<PingReply>> PingAsync()
{
var pingTargetHosts = GetIPs();
var pingTasks = pingTargetHosts.Select(async host => await new Ping().SendPingAsync(host, 2000)).ToList();
var pingResults = await Task.WhenAll(pingTasks);
return pingResults.ToList();
}
async Task<List<PingReply>> GetReplies()
{
var PingIPs = PingAsync();
MessageBox.Show("Loading:...");
return await PingIPs;
}
async Task BuildDictionary()
{
List<PingReply> Replies = await GetReplies();
//Use this list via foreach
}
async private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
EthernetCheck checker = new EthernetCheck();
checker.Check();
bool IsEthernetIn = checker.PluggedIn;
if (IsEthernetIn)
{
await BuildDictionary();
//Do Stuff
}
}

Your code is deadlocking because you're blocking on asynchronous code. To fix it, use async all the way:
async Task<List<PingReply>> GetRepliesAsync()
{
var PingIPs = PingAsync();
MessageBox.Show("Loading:...");
return await PingIPs;
}
Usage:
var replies = await GetRepliesAsync();

When use async/await you should remember that .net framework will control the flow of program execution so, I recommend u to make all calls asynchronous to avoid this kind of problem.
async Task<List<PingReply>> PingAsync()
{
var pingTargetHosts = await GetIPs();
var pingTasks = pingTargetHosts.Select(host => await new Ping().SendPingAsync(host, 2000)).ToList();
var pingResults = await Task.WhenAll(pingTasks);
return pingResults.ToList();
}

Task.WaitSubset / Task.WaitN?

There're Task.WaitAll method which waits for all tasks and Task.WaitAny method which waits for one task. How to wait for any N tasks?
Use case: search result pages are downloaded, each result needs a separate task to download and process it. If I use WaitAll to wait for the results of the subtasks before getting next search result page, I will not use all available resources (one long task will delay the rest). Not waiting at all can cause thousands of tasks to be queued which isn't the best idea either.
So, how to wait for a subset of tasks to be completed? Or, alternatively, how to wait for the task scheduler queue to have only N tasks?

This looks like an excellent problem for TPL Dataflow, which will allow you to control parallelism and buffering to process at maximum speed.
Here's some (untested) code to show you what I mean:
static void Process()
{
var searchReader =
new TransformManyBlock<SearchResult, SearchResult>(async uri =>
{
// return a list of search results at uri.
return new[]
{
new SearchResult
{
IsResult = true,
Uri = "http://foo.com"
},
new SearchResult
{
// return the next search result page here.
IsResult = false,
Uri = "http://google.com/next"
}
};
}, new ExecutionDataflowBlockOptions
{
BoundedCapacity = 8, // restrict buffer size.
MaxDegreeOfParallelism = 4 // control parallelism.
});
// link "next" pages back to the searchReader.
searchReader.LinkTo(searchReader, x => !x.IsResult);
var resultActor = new ActionBlock<SearchResult>(async uri =>
{
// do something with the search result.
}, new ExecutionDataflowBlockOptions
{
BoundedCapacity = 64,
MaxDegreeOfParallelism = 16
});
// link search results into resultActor.
searchReader.LinkTo(resultActor, x => x.IsResult);
// put in the first piece of input.
searchReader.Post(new SearchResult { Uri = "http://google/first" });
}
struct SearchResult
{
public bool IsResult { get; set; }
public string Uri { get; set; }
}

I think you should independently limit the number of parallel download tasks and the number of concurrent result processing tasks. I would do it using two SemaphoreSlim objects, like below. This version doesn't use the synchronous SemaphoreSlim.Wait (thanks #svick for making the point). It was only slightly tested, the exception handling can be improved; substitute your own DownloadNextPageAsync and ProcessResults:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace Console_21666797
{
partial class Program
{
// the actual download method
// async Task<string> DownloadNextPageAsync(string url) { ... }
// the actual process methods
// void ProcessResults(string data) { ... }
// download and process all pages
async Task DownloadAndProcessAllAsync(
string startUrl, int maxDownloads, int maxProcesses)
{
// max parallel downloads
var downloadSemaphore = new SemaphoreSlim(maxDownloads);
// max parallel processing tasks
var processSemaphore = new SemaphoreSlim(maxProcesses);
var tasks = new HashSet<Task>();
var complete = false;
var protect = new Object(); // protect tasks
var page = 0;
// do the page
Func<string, Task> doPageAsync = async (url) =>
{
bool downloadSemaphoreAcquired = true;
try
{
// download the page
var data = await DownloadNextPageAsync(
url).ConfigureAwait(false);
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(data))
{
Volatile.Write(ref complete, true);
}
else
{
// enable the next download to happen
downloadSemaphore.Release();
downloadSemaphoreAcquired = false;
// process this download
await processSemaphore.WaitAsync();
try
{
await Task.Run(() => ProcessResults(data));
}
finally
{
processSemaphore.Release();
}
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
Volatile.Write(ref complete, true);
throw;
}
finally
{
if (downloadSemaphoreAcquired)
downloadSemaphore.Release();
}
};
// do the page and save the task
Func<string, Task> queuePageAsync = async (url) =>
{
var task = doPageAsync(url);
lock (protect)
tasks.Add(task);
await task;
lock (protect)
tasks.Remove(task);
};
// process pages in a loop until complete is true
while (!Volatile.Read(ref complete))
{
page++;
// acquire download semaphore synchrnously
await downloadSemaphore.WaitAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
// do the page
var task = queuePageAsync(startUrl + "?page=" + page);
}
// await completion of the pending tasks
Task[] pendingTasks;
lock (protect)
pendingTasks = tasks.ToArray();
await Task.WhenAll(pendingTasks);
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
new Program().DownloadAndProcessAllAsync("http://google.com", 10, 5).Wait();
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

Something like this should work. There might be some edge cases, but all in all it should ensure a minimum of completions.
public static async Task WhenN(IEnumerable<Task> tasks, int n, CancellationTokenSource cts = null)
{
var pending = new HashSet<Task>(tasks);
if (n > pending.Count)
{
n = pending.Count;
// or throw
}
var completed = 0;
while (completed != n)
{
var completedTask = await Task.WhenAny(pending);
pending.Remove(completedTask);
completed++;
}
if (cts != null)
{
cts.Cancel();
}
}
Usage:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var tasks = new List<Task>();
var completed = 0;
var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
tasks.Add(Task.Run(async () =>
{
await Task.Delay(temp * 100, cts.Token);
Console.WriteLine("Completed task {0}", i);
completed++;
}, cts.Token));
}
Extensions.WhenN(tasks, 30, cts).Wait();
Console.WriteLine(completed);
Console.ReadLine();
}

Task[] runningTasks = MyTasksFactory.StartTasks();
while(runningTasks.Any())
{
int finished = Task.WaitAny(runningTasks);
Task.Factory.StareNew(()=> {Consume(runningTasks[Finished].Result);})
runningTasks.RemoveAt(finished);
}