Develop Reference

Catching exceptions immediately does not work with Task.WhenAll

I have two instances of a class which creates a UDP socket to receive data from UDP clients. If one of the instances throws an exception I want to handle it immediately in a higher layer. In my program they're started with await Task.WhenAll(recv1.StartAsync(), recv2.StartAsync). This however waits for all tasks to finish before the first exception is thrown. Any ideas on how to resolve this problem?
static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
var udpReceiver1 = new UdpReceiver(localEndpoint1);
var udpReceiver2 = new UdpReceiver(localEndpoint2);
var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
try
{
await Task.WhenAll(udpReceiver1.StartAsync(cts.Token), udpReceiver2.StartAsync(cts.Token));
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Handle Exception...
cts.Cancel();
}
}
class UdpReceiver
{
public UdpReceiver(IPEndPoint endpoint)
{
udpClient = new UdpClient(endpoint);
}
public async Task StartAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
try
{
while (!cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
var result = await ReceiveAsync(cancellationToken);
var message = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(result.Buffer);
Trace.WriteLine($"UdpClient1 received message:{Encoding.UTF8.GetString(result.Buffer)}");
// throw new Exception("UdpClient1 raising exception");
}
}
}
private async Task<UdpReceiveResult> ReceiveAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<UdpReceiveResult>();
using (cancellationToken.Register(() => tcs.TrySetCanceled(), false))
{
var task = udpClient.ReceiveAsync();
var completedTask = await Task.WhenAny(task, tcs.Task);
var result = await completedTask.ConfigureAwait(false);
return result;
}
}
private UdpClient udpClient;
}
Update 1: Task.WhenAny would be a viable solution. Thanks #CamiloTerevinto
try
{
await await Task.WhenAny(udpReceiver1.StartAsync(cts.Token), udpReceiver2.StartAsync(cts.Token));
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Handle Exception...
cts.Cancel();
}
Update 2: For a more fine grained exception handling of all tasks I'd go with my own adapted implementation of Task.WhenAll proposed by #Servy.

The behavior is different enough from the framework WhenAll implementation that you're probably best just writing your own adapted version, fortunately it's not particularly hard to implement. Just attach a continuation to every single task, if any is cancelled or faulted, the resulting task does the same, if it succeeds store the result, and if the last task was the one to succeed, complete the task with all of the stored results.
public static Task<IEnumerable<TResult>> WhenAll<TResult>(IEnumerable<Task<TResult>> tasks)
{
var listOfTasks = tasks.ToList();
if (listOfTasks.Count == 0)
{
return Task.FromResult(Enumerable.Empty<TResult>());
}
var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<IEnumerable<TResult>>();
var results = new TResult[listOfTasks.Count];
int completedTasks = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < listOfTasks.Count; i++)
{
int taskIndex = i;
Task<TResult> task = listOfTasks[i];
task.ContinueWith(_ =>
{
if (task.IsCanceled)
tcs.TrySetCanceled();
else if (task.IsFaulted)
tcs.TrySetException(task.Exception.InnerExceptions);
else
{
results[taskIndex] = task.Result;
if (Interlocked.Increment(ref completedTasks) == listOfTasks.Count)
{
tcs.TrySetResult(results);
}
}
});
}
return tcs.Task;
}
As with so many task based generic operations, you also need a version without the results, and if you don't want to deal with a notable overhead, you really need to just copy-paste the result-based approach but with all of the results ripped out, which isn't hard, just inelegant. Turning all of these tasks into tasks with a result would also work, but for an operation like this the overhead is likely problematic.
public static Task WhenAll(IEnumerable<Task> tasks)
{
var listOfTasks = tasks.ToList();
if (listOfTasks.Count == 0)
{
return Task.CompletedTask;
}
var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
int completedTasks = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < listOfTasks.Count; i++)
{
int taskIndex = i;
Task task = listOfTasks[i];
task.ContinueWith(_ =>
{
if (task.IsCanceled)
tcs.TrySetCanceled();
else if (task.IsFaulted)
tcs.TrySetException(task.Exception.InnerExceptions);
else
{
if (Interlocked.Increment(ref completedTasks) == listOfTasks.Count)
{
tcs.TrySetResult(true);
}
}
});
}
return tcs.Task;
}

There's probably a way to do it but I can't think of one without making your code very messy. It'd be better to handle the exception in the actual task. If you need to handle it with common code, use a handler delegate.
static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
//This is our common error handler
void HandleException(Exception ex)
{
Log("Exception!" + ex.Message);
cts.Cancel();
}
var udpReceiver1 = new UdpReceiver(localEndpoint1);
var udpReceiver2 = new UdpReceiver(localEndpoint1);
//We pass the handler as one of the arguments
await Task.WhenAll(udpReceiver1.StartAsync(cts.Token, HandleException), udpReceiver2.StartAsync(cts.Token, HandleException));
}
class UdpReceiver
{
public async Task StartAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken, Action<Exception> errorHandler)
{
try
{
while (!cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
//Main logic goes here
}
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
errorHandler(ex); //Call common error handling code
}
}

You could await the tasks in two steps. In the first step await any of them to complete, and in case of failure initiate the cancellation. Don't handle the exception in this step. Delay the exception handling until the second step, after awaiting all of the tasks to complete. Both tasks may have failed, so you may want to handle the exception of each one separately.
Task task1 = udpReceiver1.StartAsync(cts.Token);
Task task2 = udpReceiver2.StartAsync(cts.Token);
// Await any task to complete
Task firstCompletedTask = await Task.WhenAny(task1, task2);
if (firstCompletedTask.IsFaulted) cts.Cancel();
try
{
// Await them all to complete
await Task.WhenAll(task1, task2);
}
catch
{
if (task1.IsFaulted) HandleException(task1.Exception.InnerException);
if (task2.IsFaulted) HandleException(task2.Exception.InnerException);
}

C#: Task cancellation not working (CancellationTokenSource)

I have some long running code that I would like to run as a Task and cancel when needed using CancellationTokenSource but cancellation doesn't seem to work as my task keeps running when tokenSource.Cancel() is called (no exception thrown).
Probably missing something obvious?
Cut down example below:
bool init = false;
private void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
CancellationTokenSource tokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
CancellationToken token = tokenSource.Token;
Task task = new Task(() =>
{
while (true)
{
token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
if (token.IsCancellationRequested)
{
Console.WriteLine("Operation is going to be cancelled");
throw new Exception("Task cancelled");
}
else
{
// do some work
}
}
}, token);
if (init)
{
tokenSource.Cancel();
button1.Text = "Start again";
init = false;
} else
{
try
{
task.Start();
} catch(Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
}
button1.Text = "Cancel";
init = true;
}
}

Main issue in your code is that you don't store a tokenSource. Second Button1_Click invocation cancels different token than you pass to task during first call.
Second issue is that you create over and over again new task, but your logic suggest that you want one task which should be created on first click and terminated during second click.

Canceled task also appears as completed

I'm playing around with async-await and cancellation to get some more understanding on the matter. For this I have made the following console application:
using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace AsyncTest
{
class Program
{
private static CancellationTokenSource _cancellationTokenSource;
private static CancellationToken _cancellationToken;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.CancelKeyPress += myHandler;
_cancellationTokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
_cancellationToken = _cancellationTokenSource.Token;
var task = DoWorkAsync(_cancellationToken).ContinueWith(ContinueMethod);
task.Wait();
Console.ReadLine();
}
protected static void myHandler(object sender, ConsoleCancelEventArgs args)
{
if (_cancellationToken.CanBeCanceled)
{
_cancellationTokenSource.Cancel();
}
args.Cancel = true;
}
static void ContinueMethod(Task task)
{
if (task.IsCanceled)
{
Console.WriteLine("The task was canceled");
}
if (task.IsCompleted)
{
Console.WriteLine("The task completed successfully");
}
if (task.IsFaulted)
{
if (task.Exception != null)
{
var exceptions = task.Exception.Flatten().InnerExceptions;
foreach (var exception in exceptions)
{
Console.WriteLine(exception.Message);
}
}
Console.WriteLine("The task failed");
}
}
static async Task DoWorkAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
await Task.Run(() => DoWork(cancellationToken), cancellationToken);
}
static void DoWork(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
cancellationToken.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
Console.WriteLine("DoWork() is started");
// Uncomment the following line of code to put the task in a 'faulted' state
//throw new Exception();
for (var count = 0; count < 10; count++)
{
if (cancellationToken.IsCancellationRequested)
{
Console.WriteLine("Get a cancelation request");
cancellationToken.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
}
else
{
Thread.Sleep(500);
Console.WriteLine("Count : " + count);
}
}
Console.WriteLine("DoWork() is finished");
}
}
}
When I let the application complete, I correctly receive the "The task completed successfully" message.
Now when I press CTRL+C, which triggers a cancel on the started task (see interception through myHandler), I correctly get the "The task was canceled" message. But I also get the "The task completed successfully" message. I was not expecting the task to also show up as complete, since I canceled it.
In case I uncomment the throw new Exception(); line in the DoWork() method, I correctly receive the "The task failed" message, but also the "The task completed successfully" message.
Am I wrong in my assumption and is this as designed? Or am I missing something else entirely?
I could off course work around this by adding an additional check as follows:
if (task.IsCompleted && !task.IsCanceled)
{
Console.WriteLine("The task completed successfully");
}
But I'm not sure if this is the correct way or if something else in my program is causing this completed state.
Thanks in advance for your input and/or clarification on this matter.

The documentation of Task.IsCompleted says
IsCompleted will return true when the task is in one of the three final states: RanToCompletion, Faulted, or Canceled.
So IsCompleted tells you at least that the Task is not running any more. It does not indicate if the Task completed successfully, failed or was cancelled.

Use Task.IsCompletedSuccessFully

Modal Progress Form showing IProgress and supporting Cancellation of async Task for WinForms

I have been attempting to have a re-usable modal progress window (I.e. progressForm.ShowDialog()) to show progress from a running async task, including enabling cancellation.
I have seen some implementations that launch start the async task by hooking the Activated event handler on the form, but I need to start the task first, then show the modal dialog that will show it's progress, and then have the modal dialog close when completed or cancellation is completed (note - I want the form closed when cancellation is completed - signalled to close from the task continuation).
I currently have the following - and although this working - are there issues with this - or could this be done in a better way?
I did read that I need to run this CTRL-F5, without debugging (to avoid the AggregateException stopping the debugger in the continuation - and let it be caught in the try catch as in production code)
ProgressForm.cs
- Form with ProgressBar (progressBar1) and Button (btnCancel)
public partial class ProgressForm : Form
{
public ProgressForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public event Action Cancelled;
private void btnCancel_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (Cancelled != null) Cancelled();
}
public void UpdateProgress(int progressInfo)
{
this.progressBar1.Value = progressInfo;
}
}
Services.cs
- Class file containing logic consumed by WinForms app (as well as console app)
public class MyService
{
public async Task<bool> DoSomethingWithResult(
int arg, CancellationToken token, IProgress<int> progress)
{
// Note: arg value would normally be an
// object with meaningful input args (Request)
// un-quote this to test exception occuring.
//throw new Exception("Something bad happened.");
// Procressing would normally be several Async calls, such as ...
// reading a file (e.g. await ReadAsync)
// Then processing it (CPU instensive, await Task.Run),
// and then updating a database (await UpdateAsync)
// Just using Delay here to provide sample,
// using arg as delay, doing that 100 times.
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
await Task.Delay(arg);
progress.Report(i + 1);
}
// return value would be an object with meaningful results (Response)
return true;
}
}
MainForm.cs
- Form with Button (btnDo).
public partial class MainForm : Form
{
public MainForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private async void btnDo_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
CancellationTokenSource cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
CancellationToken token = cts.Token;
// Create the ProgressForm, and hook up the cancellation to it.
ProgressForm progressForm = new ProgressForm();
progressForm.Cancelled += () => cts.Cancel();
// Create the progress reporter - and have it update
// the form directly (if form is valid (not disposed))
Action<int> progressHandlerAction = (progressInfo) =>
{
if (!progressForm.IsDisposed) // don't attempt to use disposed form
progressForm.UpdateProgress(progressInfo);
};
Progress<int> progress = new Progress<int>(progressHandlerAction);
// start the task, and continue back on UI thread to close ProgressForm
Task<bool> responseTask
= MyService.DoSomethingWithResultAsync(100, token, progress)
.ContinueWith(p =>
{
if (!progressForm.IsDisposed) // don't attempt to close disposed form
progressForm.Close();
return p.Result;
}, TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext());
Debug.WriteLine("Before ShowDialog");
// only show progressForm if
if (!progressForm.IsDisposed) // don't attempt to use disposed form
progressForm.ShowDialog();
Debug.WriteLine("After ShowDialog");
bool response = false;
// await for the task to complete, get the response,
// and check for cancellation and exceptions
try
{
response = await responseTask;
MessageBox.Show("Result = " + response.ToString());
}
catch (AggregateException ae)
{
if (ae.InnerException is OperationCanceledException)
Debug.WriteLine("Cancelled");
else
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var ie in ae.InnerExceptions)
{
sb.AppendLine(ie.Message);
}
MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString());
}
}
finally
{
// Do I need to double check the form is closed?
if (!progressForm.IsDisposed)
progressForm.Close();
}
}
}
Modified code - using TaskCompletionSource as recommended...
private async void btnDo_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
bool? response = null;
string errorMessage = null;
using (CancellationTokenSource cts = new CancellationTokenSource())
{
using (ProgressForm2 progressForm = new ProgressForm2())
{
progressForm.Cancelled +=
() => cts.Cancel();
var dialogReadyTcs = new TaskCompletionSource<object>();
progressForm.Shown +=
(sX, eX) => dialogReadyTcs.TrySetResult(null);
var dialogTask = Task.Factory.StartNew(
() =>progressForm.ShowDialog(this),
cts.Token,
TaskCreationOptions.None,
TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext());
await dialogReadyTcs.Task;
Progress<int> progress = new Progress<int>(
(progressInfo) => progressForm.UpdateProgress(progressInfo));
try
{
response = await MyService.DoSomethingWithResultAsync(50, cts.Token, progress);
}
catch (OperationCanceledException) { } // Cancelled
catch (Exception ex)
{
errorMessage = ex.Message;
}
finally
{
progressForm.Close();
}
await dialogTask;
}
}
if (response != null) // Success - have valid response
MessageBox.Show("MainForm: Result = " + response.ToString());
else // Faulted
if (errorMessage != null) MessageBox.Show(errorMessage);
}

I think the biggest issue I have, is that using await (instead of
ContinueWith) means I can't use ShowDialog because both are blocking
calls. If I call ShowDialog first the code is blocked at that point,
and the progress form needs to actually start the async method (which
is what I want to avoid). If I call await
MyService.DoSomethingWithResultAsync first, then this blocks and I
can't then show my progress form.
The ShowDialog is indeed a blocking API in the sense it doesn't return until the dialog has been closed. But it is non-blocking in the sense it continues to pump messages, albeit on a new nested message loop. We can utilize this behavior with async/await and TaskCompletionSource:
private async void btnDo_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
CancellationTokenSource cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
CancellationToken token = cts.Token;
// Create the ProgressForm, and hook up the cancellation to it.
ProgressForm progressForm = new ProgressForm();
progressForm.Cancelled += () => cts.Cancel();
var dialogReadyTcs = new TaskCompletionSource<object>();
progressForm.Load += (sX, eX) => dialogReadyTcs.TrySetResult(true);
// show the dialog asynchronousy
var dialogTask = Task.Factory.StartNew(
() => progressForm.ShowDialog(),
token,
TaskCreationOptions.None,
TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext());
// await to make sure the dialog is ready
await dialogReadyTcs.Task;
// continue on a new nested message loop,
// which has been started by progressForm.ShowDialog()
// Create the progress reporter - and have it update
// the form directly (if form is valid (not disposed))
Action<int> progressHandlerAction = (progressInfo) =>
{
if (!progressForm.IsDisposed) // don't attempt to use disposed form
progressForm.UpdateProgress(progressInfo);
};
Progress<int> progress = new Progress<int>(progressHandlerAction);
try
{
// await the worker task
var taskResult = await MyService.DoSomethingWithResultAsync(100, token, progress);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
while (ex is AggregateException)
ex = ex.InnerException;
if (!(ex is OperationCanceledException))
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message); // report the error
}
if (!progressForm.IsDisposed && progressForm.Visible)
progressForm.Close();
// this make sure showDialog returns and the nested message loop is over
await dialogTask;
}

How to chain a task to a previous instance of it?

Looking to chain a task to a previous instance if it exists. Currently, both are executed at the same time.
Initial code that works for one task :
private async void MenuMediaAddFiles_OnClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var dialog = GetDefaultOpenFileDialog();
using (dialog)
{
if (dialog.ShowDialog() == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK)
{
using (var progress = new SimpleProgress(this))
{
int addFiles = await _context.AddFiles(dialog.FileNames, progress);
Console.WriteLine("Files added: {0}", addFiles);
}
}
}
}
A failed attempt to make it work :
Task<int> _files;
private async void MenuMediaAddFiles_OnClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var dialog = GetDefaultOpenFileDialog();
using (dialog)
{
if (dialog.ShowDialog() == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK)
{
using (var progress = new SimpleProgress(this))
{
int addFiles;
Task<int> files = _context.AddFiles(dialog.FileNames, progress);
if (_files == null)
{
_files = files;
}
else
{
var task1 = await _files.ContinueWith(task => _context.AddFiles(dialog.FileNames, new SimpleProgress(this)));
}
addFiles = await _files;
Console.WriteLine("Files added: {0}", addFiles);
}
}
}
}

You were pretty close, but there were a few things that needed to be modified:
private Task<int> previousTask = Task.FromResult(0);
private async void MenuMediaAddFiles_OnClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var dialog = GetDefaultOpenFileDialog();
using (dialog)
{
if (dialog.ShowDialog() == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK)
{
using (var progress = new SimpleProgress(this))
{
previousTask = previousTask.ContinueWith(t =>
_context.AddFiles(dialog.FileNames, progress))
.UnWrap(); ;
int addFiles = await previousTask;
Console.WriteLine("Files added: {0}", addFiles);
}
}
}
}
Things to note:
Rather than having the previous task be null sometimes, it was easier to initialize it to an already completed task (Task.FromResult(0)). This avoids the null check code.
You were calling AddFiles twice. You shouldn't have been calling it before the if, and you weren't ever assigning the task to the instance field inside the if.
I used UnWrap instead of await to turn the Task<Task<int>> into a Task<int>. Both work, but in this case I felt UnWrap made its intentions clearer.
Note that since the entire event handler will be running in the UI thread there's no need to synchronize access to previousTask, if it doesn't, you'd need to do some locking.