Develop Reference

Func doesn't work & blocked during test execution

Prerequisites:
.Net 6.0
C# 10
NUnit 3.13.3
Context:
Try to run an unit test, but run into some kind of thread blocker. The code just stop execution on
value = await getDataToCacheAsync.Invoke();
The last row that can be debugged is
return () => new Task<string?>(() => cacheValue [there]);
Q: It looks like there is some kind of deadlock happened, but it's not clear for me why and how it can be addressed
Unit test:
[Test]
public async Task GetCachedValueAsync_WithDedicatedCacheKey_ReturnsExpectedCacheValue()
{
const string cacheKey = "test-cache-key";
const string cacheValue = "test-cache-key";
var result = await _sut.GetCachedValueAsync(cacheKey, GetDataToCacheAsync(cacheValue));
Assert.AreEqual(cacheValue, result);
}
private static Func<Task<string?>> GetDataToCacheAsync(string cacheValue)
{
return () => new Task<string?>(() => cacheValue);
}
The code under test:
public async Task<T?> GetCachedValueAsync<T>(string cacheKey, Func<Task<T?>> getDataToCacheAsync)
where T : class
{
// [Bloked here, nothing happens then, I'm expecting that it should return "test-cache-value"]
value = await getDataToCacheAsync.Invoke(); [Blocked]
...
return value
}

After
return () => new Task<string?>(() => cacheValue [there]);
was replaces with
return () => Task.FromResult(cacheValue);
it started work
UPD:
It seems like the root cause is that a task should be started directly before awaiting it, in such cases (e.g. Task.Run(...), TaskFactory ... etc.).
Task.FromResult returns already completed task with a result

As written in the docs generally you should try to avoid creating tasks via constructor:
This constructor should only be used in advanced scenarios where it is required that the creation and starting of the task is separated.
Rather than calling this constructor, the most common way to instantiate a Task object and launch a task is by calling the static Task.Run(Action) or TaskFactory.StartNew(Action) method.
The issue being that task created by constructor is a "cold" one (and according to guidelines you should avoid returning "cold" tasks from methods, only "hot" ones) - it is not started so await will result in endless wait (actually no deadlock happening here).
There are multiple ways to fix this code, for example:
Use Task.Run:
return () => Task.Run(() => cacheValue);
Start created task manually (though in this case there is no reason to. Also as noted by #Theodor Zoulias - it is recommended to specify explicitly the scheduler when calling the Start method. Otherwise the task will be scheduled on the ambient TaskScheduler.Current, which can be a source of some issues):
return () =>
{
var task = new Task<string?>(() => cacheValue);
task.Start();
return task;
}
Return a completed task (which I think is the best way in this case, unless you are testing a very specific scenario):
return () => Task.FromResult(cacheValue);

Ensuring completion of async OnNext code before process terminates

The unit test below will never print "Async 3" because the test finishes first. How can I ensure it runs to completion? The best I could come up with was an arbitrary Task.Delay at the end or WriteAsync().Result, neither are ideal.
public async Task TestMethod1() // eg. webjob
{
TestContext.WriteLine("Starting test...");
var observable = Observable.Create<int>(async ob =>
{
ob.OnNext(1);
await Task.Delay(1000); // Fake async REST api call
ob.OnNext(2);
await Task.Delay(1000);
ob.OnNext(3);
ob.OnCompleted();
});
observable.Subscribe(i => TestContext.WriteLine($"Sync {i}"));
observable.SelectMany(i => WriteAsync(i).ToObservable()).Subscribe();
await observable;
TestContext.WriteLine("Complete.");
}
public async Task WriteAsync(int value) // Fake async DB call
{
await Task.Delay(1000);
TestContext.WriteLine($"Async {value}");
}
Edit
I realise that mentioning unit tests was probably misleading.This isn't a testing question. The code is a simulation of a real issue of a process running in an Azure WebJob, where both the producer and consumer need to call some Async IO. The issue is that the webjob runs to completion before the consumer has really finished. This is because I can't figure out how to properly await anything from the consumer side. Maybe this just isn't possible with RX...

EDIT:
You're basically looking for a blocking operator. The old blocking operators (like ForEach) were deprecated in favor of async versions. You want to await the last item like so:
public async Task TestMethod1()
{
TestContext.WriteLine("Starting test...");
var observable = Observable.Create<int>(async ob =>
{
ob.OnNext(1);
await Task.Delay(1000);
ob.OnNext(2);
await Task.Delay(1000);
ob.OnNext(3);
ob.OnCompleted();
});
observable.Subscribe(i => TestContext.WriteLine($"Sync {i}"));
var selectManyObservable = observable.SelectMany(i => WriteAsync(i).ToObservable()).Publish().RefCount();
selectManyObservable.Subscribe();
await selectManyObservable.LastOrDefaultAsync();
TestContext.WriteLine("Complete.");
}
While that will solve your immediate problem, it looks like you're going to keep running into issues because of the below (and I added two more). Rx is very powerful when used right, and confusing as hell when not.
Old answer:
A couple things:
Mixing async/await and Rx generally results in getting the pitfalls of both and the benefits of neither.
Rx has robust testing functionality. You're not using it.
Side-Effects, like a WriteLine are best performed exclusively in a subscribe, and not in an operator like SelectMany.
You may want to brush up on cold vs hot observables.
The reason it isn't running to completion is because of your test runner. Your test runner is terminating the test at the conclusion of TestMethod1. The Rx subscription would live on otherwise. When I run your code in Linqpad, I get the following output:
Starting test...
Sync 1
Sync 2
Async 1
Sync 3
Async 2
Complete.
Async 3
...which is what I'm assuming you want to see, except you probably want the Complete after the Async 3.
Using Rx only, your code would look something like this:
public void TestMethod1()
{
TestContext.WriteLine("Starting test...");
var observable = Observable.Concat<int>(
Observable.Return(1),
Observable.Empty<int>().Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)),
Observable.Return(2),
Observable.Empty<int>().Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)),
Observable.Return(3)
);
var syncOutput = observable
.Select(i => $"Sync {i}");
syncOutput.Subscribe(s => TestContext.WriteLine(s));
var asyncOutput = observable
.SelectMany(i => WriteAsync(i, scheduler));
asyncOutput.Subscribe(s => TestContext.WriteLine(s), () => TestContext.WriteLine("Complete."));
}
public IObservable<string> WriteAsync(int value, IScheduler scheduler)
{
return Observable.Return(value)
.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), scheduler)
.Select(i => $"Async {value}");
}
public static class TestContext
{
public static void WriteLine(string s)
{
Console.WriteLine(s);
}
}
This still isn't taking advantage of Rx's testing functionality. That would look like this:
public void TestMethod1()
{
var scheduler = new TestScheduler();
TestContext.WriteLine("Starting test...");
var observable = Observable.Concat<int>(
Observable.Return(1),
Observable.Empty<int>().Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), scheduler),
Observable.Return(2),
Observable.Empty<int>().Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), scheduler),
Observable.Return(3)
);
var syncOutput = observable
.Select(i => $"Sync {i}");
syncOutput.Subscribe(s => TestContext.WriteLine(s));
var asyncOutput = observable
.SelectMany(i => WriteAsync(i, scheduler));
asyncOutput.Subscribe(s => TestContext.WriteLine(s), () => TestContext.WriteLine("Complete."));
var asyncExpected = scheduler.CreateColdObservable<string>(
ReactiveTest.OnNext(1000.Ms(), "Async 1"),
ReactiveTest.OnNext(2000.Ms(), "Async 2"),
ReactiveTest.OnNext(3000.Ms(), "Async 3"),
ReactiveTest.OnCompleted<string>(3000.Ms() + 1) //+1 because you can't have two notifications on same tick
);
var syncExpected = scheduler.CreateColdObservable<string>(
ReactiveTest.OnNext(0000.Ms(), "Sync 1"),
ReactiveTest.OnNext(1000.Ms(), "Sync 2"),
ReactiveTest.OnNext(2000.Ms(), "Sync 3"),
ReactiveTest.OnCompleted<string>(2000.Ms()) //why no +1 here?
);
var asyncObserver = scheduler.CreateObserver<string>();
asyncOutput.Subscribe(asyncObserver);
var syncObserver = scheduler.CreateObserver<string>();
syncOutput.Subscribe(syncObserver);
scheduler.Start();
ReactiveAssert.AreElementsEqual(
asyncExpected.Messages,
asyncObserver.Messages);
ReactiveAssert.AreElementsEqual(
syncExpected.Messages,
syncObserver.Messages);
}
public static class MyExtensions
{
public static long Ms(this int ms)
{
return TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(ms).Ticks;
}
}
...So unlike your Task tests, you don't have to wait. The test executes instantly. You can bump up the Delay times to minutes or hours, and the TestScheduler will essentially mock the time for you. And then your test runner will probably be happy.

Well, you can use Observable.ForEach to block until an IObservable has terminated:
observable.ForEach(unusedValue => { });
Can you make TestMethod1 a normal, non-async method, and then replace await observable; with this?

Why awaiting cold Task does not throw

I was just experimenting to see what happens when a cold task (i.e. a Task which hasn't been started) is awaited. To my surprise the code just hung forever and "Finsihed" is never printed. I would expect that an exception is thrown.
public async Task Test1()
{
var task = new Task(() => Thread.Sleep(1000));
//task.Start();
await task;
}
void Main()
{
Test1().Wait();
Console.WriteLine("Finished");
}
Then I though perhaps the task can be started from another thread, so I changed the code to:
public async Task Test1()
{
var task = new Task(() => Thread.Sleep(1000));
//task.Start();
await task;
Console.WriteLine("Test1 Finished");
}
void Main()
{
var task1 = Test1();
Task.Run(() =>
{
Task.Delay(5000);
task1.Start();
});
task1.Wait();
Console.WriteLine("Finished");
}
But it is still blocked at task1.Wait(). Does anyone know if there is way to start a cold task after it has being awaited?
Otherwise it seems there is no point in being able to await a cold task, so perhaps the task should either be started when awaited or an exception should be thrown.
Update
I was awaiting the wrong task, i.e. the outer task returned by Test1 rather than the one newed inside it. The InvalidOperationException mentioned by #Jon Skeet was being thrown inside Task.Run however because the resulting task was not observed, the exception was not thrown on the main thread. Putting a try/catch inside Task.Run or calling Wait() or Result on the task returned by Task.Run threw the exception on the main console thread.

You're trying to start the task returned by the async method - that isn't the cold task that you started out with. Indeed, if you add some diagnostics to your Task.Run call, you'll see that an exception is thrown:
System.InvalidOperationException: Start may not be called on a promise-style task.
Here's an example showing what I think you were really trying to do:
using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
public class Test
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Not using Task.Delay! That would be pointless
Task t1 = new Task(() => Thread.Sleep(1000));
Task t2 = Await(t1);
Console.WriteLine(t2.Status);
Console.WriteLine("Starting original task");
t1.Start();
Console.WriteLine(t2.Status);
t2.Wait();
Console.WriteLine(t2.Status);
}
static async Task Await(Task task)
{
Console.WriteLine("Beginning awaiting");
await task;
Console.WriteLine("Finished awaiting");
}
}
Note the use of Thread.Sleep instead of Task.Delay; unless you're using the result of Task.Delay, it basically does nothing. Using Thread.Sleep is emulating real work to be done in the other task.
As for why awaiting an unstarted task doesn't throw an exception - I think that's reasonable, to be honest. It allows for situations like the above to be valid, which may in some cases make life easier. (You may create a lot of tasks before starting them, for example - and you may want to start waiting for them to finish before you start them.)

Does anyone know if there is way to start a cold task after it has
being awaited?
You still can create a cold task from an async method and start it later, if that's what you want:
class Program
{
public static async Task Test1()
{
await Task.Delay(1000);
Console.WriteLine("Test1 is about to finish");
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var taskOuter = new Task<Task>(Test1);
var taskInner = taskOuter.Unwrap();
Task.Run(() =>
{
Thread.Sleep(2000);
// run synchronously
taskOuter.RunSynchronously();
// or schedule
// taskOuter.Start(TaskScheduler.Defaut);
});
taskInner.Wait();
Console.WriteLine("Enter to exit");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}

How do I convert this to an async task?

Given the following code...
static void DoSomething(int id) {
Thread.Sleep(50);
Console.WriteLine(#"DidSomething({0})", id);
}
I know I can convert this to an async task as follows...
static async Task DoSomethingAsync(int id) {
await Task.Delay(50);
Console.WriteLine(#"DidSomethingAsync({0})", id);
}
And that by doing so if I am calling multiple times (Task.WhenAll) everything will be faster and more efficient than perhaps using Parallel.Foreach or even calling from within a loop.
But for a minute, lets pretend that Task.Delay() does not exist and I actually have to use Thread.Sleep(); I know in reality this is not the case, but this is concept code and where the Delay/Sleep is would normally be an IO operation where there is no async option (such as early EF).
I have tried the following...
static async Task DoSomethingAsync2(int id) {
await Task.Run(() => {
Thread.Sleep(50);
Console.WriteLine(#"DidSomethingAsync({0})", id);
});
}
But, though it runs without error, according to Lucien Wischik this is in fact bad practice as it is merely spinning up threads from the pool to complete each task (it is also slower using the following console application - if you swap between DoSomethingAsync and DoSomethingAsync2 call you can see a significant difference in the time that it takes to complete)...
static void Main(string[] args) {
MainAsync(args).Wait();
}
static async Task MainAsync(String[] args) {
List<Task> tasks = new List<Task>();
for (int i = 1; i <= 1000; i++)
tasks.Add(DoSomethingAsync2(i)); // Can replace with any version
await Task.WhenAll(tasks);
}
I then tried the following...
static async Task DoSomethingAsync3(int id) {
await new Task(() => {
Thread.Sleep(50);
Console.WriteLine(#"DidSomethingAsync({0})", id);
});
}
Transplanting this in place of the original DoSomethingAsync, the test never completes and nothing is shown on screen!
I have also tried multiple other variations that either do not compile or do not complete!
So, given the constraint that you cannot call any existing asynchronous methods and must complete both the Thread.Sleep and the Console.WriteLine in an asynchronous task, how do you do it in a manner that is as efficient as the original code?
The objective here for those of you who are interested is to give me a better understanding of how to create my own async methods where I am not calling anybody elses. Despite many searches, this seems to be the one area where examples are really lacking - whilst there are many thousands of examples of calling async methods that call other async methods in turn I cannot find any that convert an existing void method to an async task where there is no call to a further async task other than those that use the Task.Run(() => {} ) method.

There are two kinds of tasks: those that execute code (e.g., Task.Run and friends), and those that respond to some external event (e.g., TaskCompletionSource<T> and friends).
What you're looking for is TaskCompletionSource<T>. There are various "shorthand" forms for common situations so you don't always have to use TaskCompletionSource<T> directly. For example, Task.FromResult or TaskFactory.FromAsync. FromAsync is most commonly used if you have an existing *Begin/*End implementation of your I/O; otherwise, you can use TaskCompletionSource<T> directly.
For more information, see the "I/O-bound Tasks" section of Implementing the Task-based Asynchronous Pattern.
The Task constructor is (unfortunately) a holdover from Task-based parallelism, and should not be used in asynchronous code. It can only be used to create a code-based task, not an external event task.
So, given the constraint that you cannot call any existing asynchronous methods and must complete both the Thread.Sleep and the Console.WriteLine in an asynchronous task, how do you do it in a manner that is as efficient as the original code?
I would use a timer of some kind and have it complete a TaskCompletionSource<T> when the timer fires. I'm almost positive that's what the actual Task.Delay implementation does anyway.

So, given the constraint that you cannot call any existing
asynchronous methods and must complete both the Thread.Sleep and the
Console.WriteLine in an asynchronous task, how do you do it in a
manner that is as efficient as the original code?
IMO, this is a very synthetic constraint that you really need to stick with Thread.Sleep. Under this constraint, you still can slightly improve your Thread.Sleep-based code. Instead of this:
static async Task DoSomethingAsync2(int id) {
await Task.Run(() => {
Thread.Sleep(50);
Console.WriteLine(#"DidSomethingAsync({0})", id);
});
}
You could do this:
static Task DoSomethingAsync2(int id) {
return Task.Run(() => {
Thread.Sleep(50);
Console.WriteLine(#"DidSomethingAsync({0})", id);
});
}
This way, you'd avoid an overhead of the compiler-generated state machine class. There is a subtle difference between these two code fragments, in how exceptions are propagated.
Anyhow, this is not where the bottleneck of the slowdown is.
(it is also slower using the following console application - if you
swap between DoSomethingAsync and DoSomethingAsync2 call you can see a
significant difference in the time that it takes to complete)
Let's look one more time at your main loop code:
static async Task MainAsync(String[] args) {
List<Task> tasks = new List<Task>();
for (int i = 1; i <= 1000; i++)
tasks.Add(DoSomethingAsync2(i)); // Can replace with any version
await Task.WhenAll(tasks);
}
Technically, it requests 1000 tasks to be run in parallel, each supposedly to run on its own thread. In an ideal universe, you'd expect to execute Thread.Sleep(50) 1000 times in parallel and complete the whole thing in about 50ms.
However, this request is never satisfied by the TPL's default task scheduler, for a good reason: thread is a precious and expensive resource. Moreover, the actual number of concurrent operations is limited to the number of CPUs/cores. So in reality, with the default size of ThreadPool, I'm getting 21 pool threads (at peak) serving this operation in parallel. That is why DoSomethingAsync2 / Thread.Sleep takes so much longer than DoSomethingAsync / Task.Delay. DoSomethingAsync doesn't block a pool thread, it only requests one upon the completion of the time-out. Thus, more DoSomethingAsync tasks can actually run in parallel, than DoSomethingAsync2 those.
The test (a console app):
// https://stackoverflow.com/q/21800450/1768303
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace Console_21800450
{
public class Program
{
static async Task DoSomethingAsync(int id)
{
await Task.Delay(50);
UpdateMaxThreads();
Console.WriteLine(#"DidSomethingAsync({0})", id);
}
static async Task DoSomethingAsync2(int id)
{
await Task.Run(() =>
{
Thread.Sleep(50);
UpdateMaxThreads();
Console.WriteLine(#"DidSomethingAsync2({0})", id);
});
}
static async Task MainAsync(Func<int, Task> tester)
{
List<Task> tasks = new List<Task>();
for (int i = 1; i <= 1000; i++)
tasks.Add(tester(i)); // Can replace with any version
await Task.WhenAll(tasks);
}
volatile static int s_maxThreads = 0;
static void UpdateMaxThreads()
{
var threads = Process.GetCurrentProcess().Threads.Count;
// not using locks for simplicity
if (s_maxThreads < threads)
s_maxThreads = threads;
}
static void TestAsync(Func<int, Task> tester)
{
s_maxThreads = 0;
var stopwatch = new Stopwatch();
stopwatch.Start();
MainAsync(tester).Wait();
Console.WriteLine(
"time, ms: " + stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds +
", threads at peak: " + s_maxThreads);
}
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Press enter to test with Task.Delay ...");
Console.ReadLine();
TestAsync(DoSomethingAsync);
Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("Press enter to test with Thread.Sleep ...");
Console.ReadLine();
TestAsync(DoSomethingAsync2);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
Output:
Press enter to test with Task.Delay ...
...
time, ms: 1077, threads at peak: 13
Press enter to test with Thread.Sleep ...
...
time, ms: 8684, threads at peak: 21
Is it possible to improve the timing figure for the Thread.Sleep-based DoSomethingAsync2? The only way I can think of is to use TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning with Task.Factory.StartNew:
You should think twice before doing this in any real-life application:
static async Task DoSomethingAsync2(int id)
{
await Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
Thread.Sleep(50);
UpdateMaxThreads();
Console.WriteLine(#"DidSomethingAsync2({0})", id);
}, TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning | TaskCreationOptions.PreferFairness);
}
// ...
static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("Press enter to test with Task.Delay ...");
Console.ReadLine();
TestAsync(DoSomethingAsync);
Console.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine("Press enter to test with Thread.Sleep ...");
Console.ReadLine();
TestAsync(DoSomethingAsync2);
Console.ReadLine();
}
Output:
Press enter to test with Thread.Sleep ...
...
time, ms: 3600, threads at peak: 163
The timing gets better, but the price for this is high. This code asks the task scheduler to create a new thread for each new task. Do not expect this thread to come from the pool:
Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
Thread.Sleep(1000);
Console.WriteLine("Thread pool: " +
Thread.CurrentThread.IsThreadPoolThread); // false!
}, TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning).Wait();

How do I create a Task that uses await inside the body that behaves the same as the synchronous version when Wait is called?

I have some code that creates a task that does some slow work like this:
public static Task wait1()
{
return new Task(() =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
Thread.Sleep(10000);
Console.WriteLine("Done!");
});
}
In the real implementation, the Thread.Sleep will actually be a web service call. I would like to change the body of the method can use await (so it does not consume a thread during the network access/sleep). My first attempt (based on shotgun-debugging the compile errors) was this:
public static Task wait2()
{
return new Task(async () =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
await Task.Delay(10000);
Console.WriteLine("Done!");
});
}
However; this task doesn't seem to behave the same as the first one, because when I call .Wait() on it; it returns immediately.
Below is a full sample (console app) showing the differences (the app will end immediately when the second task starts).
What do I need to do so that I can call Start and Wait on a Task which happens to have code using await inside it? The tasks are queued and executed later by an agent, so it's vital that the task is not auto-started.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var w1 = wait1();
w1.Start();
w1.Wait(); // This waits 110 seconds
var w2 = wait2();
w2.Start();
w2.Wait(); // This returns immediately
}
public static Task wait1()
{
return new Task(() =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
Thread.Sleep(10000);
Console.WriteLine("Done!");
});
}
public static Task wait2()
{
return new Task(async () =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
await Task.Delay(10000);
Console.WriteLine("Done!");
});
}
}

It seems like this isn't possible! See alexm's answer here:
Tasks returned by async methods are always hot i.e. they are created in Running state.
:-(
I've worked around this by making my agent queue Func<Task>s instead, and the overload that receives a task simply queues () => task. Then; when de-queing a task, I check if it's not running, and if so, start it:
var currentTask = currentTaskFunction();
if (currentTask.Status == TaskStatus.Created)
currentTask.Start();
It seems a little clunky to have to do this (if this simple workaround works; why the original restriction on async methods always being created hot?), but it seems to work for me :-)

You could write this as:
public static async Task Wait2()
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
await Task.Delay(10000);
Console.WriteLine("Done!");
}
In general, it's rarely a good idea to ever use new Task or new Task<T>. If you must launch a task using the ThreadPool instead of using the async/await language support to compose one, you should use Task.Run to start the task. This will schedule the task to run (which is important, tasks should always be "hot" by conventions).
Note that doing this will make it so you don't have to call Task.Start, as well.

To help you understand this realize that async / await essentially does not create a new thread but rather it schedules that portion of code to be ran at an available point in time.
When you create the new Task(async () => ...) you have a task that run an async method. When that inner async method hits an await the 'new Task' is considered complete because the rest of it has been scheduled. To help you understand better place some code (a lot if wanted) in the 'new Task' before the await command. It will all execute before the application terminates and once await is reached that task will believe it has completed. It then returns and exits the application.
The best way to avoid this is to not place any task or async methods inside of your task.
Remove the async keyword and the await keyword from the method and it will work as expected.
This is the same as creating a callback if you're familiar with that.
void MethodAsync(Action callback)
{
//...some code
callback?.Invoke();
}
//using this looks like this.
MethodAsync(() => { /*code to run when complete */});
//This is the same as
Task MethodAsync()
{
//... some code here
}
//using it
await MethodAsync();
/*code to run when complete */
The thing to understand is that you're creating a new task within a task basically. So the inner 'callback' is being created at the await keyword.
You're code looks like this..
void MethodAsync(Action callback)
{
//some code to run
callback?.Invoke(); // <- this is the await keyword
//more code to run.. which happens after we run whoever is
//waiting on callback
}
There's code missing obviously. If this doesn't make sense please feel free to contact me and I'll assist. async / await (meant to make things simpler) is a beast to wrap your head around at first. Afterward you get it then it'll probably be your favorite thing in c# since linq. :P

Try this:
public async static Task wait2()
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
await Task.Delay(2000);
Console.WriteLine("Done!");
}
But we aware that the task is already started so you don't have to call start:
var w2 = wait2();
//w2.Start();
w2.Wait();
I think the problem with your wait2 function is that is creating 2 task, the one in new Task(...) and another in Task.Delay(). You are waiting for the first one, but you are not waiting for the inner one.