I seem to be experiencing a deadlock with the following code, but I do not understand why.
From a certain point in code I call this method.
public async Task<SearchResult> Search(SearchData searchData)
{
var tasks = new List<Task<FolderResult>>();
using (var serviceClient = new Service.ServiceClient())
{
foreach (var result in MethodThatCallsWebservice(serviceClient, config, searchData))
tasks.Add(result);
return await GetResult(tasks);
}
Where GetResult is as following:
private static async Task<SearchResult> GetResult(IEnumerable<Task<FolderResult>> tasks)
{
var result = new SearchResult();
await Task.WhenAll(tasks).ConfigureAwait(false);
foreach (var taskResult in tasks.Select(p => p.MyResult))
{
foreach (var folder in taskResult.Result)
{
// Do stuff to fill result
}
}
return result;
}
The line var result = new SearchResult(); never completes, though the GUI is responsive because of the following code:
public async void DisplaySearchResult(Task<SearchResult> searchResult)
{
var result = await searchResult;
FillResultView(result);
}
This method is called via an event handler that called the Search method.
_view.Search += (sender, args) => _view.DisplaySearchResult(_model.Search(args.Value));
The first line of DisplaySearchResult gets called, which follows the path down to the GetResult method with the Task.WhenAll(...) part.
Why isn't the Task.WhenAll(...) ever completed? Did I not understand the use of await correctly?
If I run the tasks synchronously, I do get the result but then the GUI freezes:
foreach (var task in tasks)
task.RunSynchronously();
I read various solutions, but most were in combination with Task.WaitAll() and therefore did not help much. I also tried to use the help from this blogpost as you can see in DisplaySearchResult but I failed to get it to work.
Update 1:
The method MethodThatCallsWebservice:
private IEnumerable<Task<FolderResult>> MethodThatCallsWebservice(ServiceClient serviceClient, SearchData searchData)
{
// Doing stuff here to determine keys
foreach(var key in keys)
yield return new Task<FolderResult>(() => new FolderResult(key, serviceClient.GetStuff(input))); // NOTE: This is not the async variant
}
Since you have an asynchronous version of GetStuff (GetStuffAsync) it's much better to use it instead of offloading the synchronous GetStuff to a ThreadPool thread with Task.Run. This wastes threads and limits scalability.
async methods return a "hot" task so you don't need to call Start:
IEnumerable<Task<FolderResult>> MethodThatCallsWebservice(ServiceClient serviceClient, SearchData searchData)
{
return keys.Select(async key =>
new FolderResult(key, await serviceClient.GetStuffAsync(input)));
}
You need to start your tasks before you return them. Or even better use Task.Run.
This:
yield return new Task<FolderResult>(() =>
new FolderResult(key, serviceClient.GetStuff(input)))
// NOTE: This is not the async variant
Is better written as:
yield return Task.Run<FolderResult>(() =>
new FolderResult(key, serviceClient.GetStuff(input)));
Related
I have a bunch of requests to process, some of which may complete synchronously.
I'd like to gather all results that are immediately available and return them early, while waiting for the rest.
Roughly like this:
List<Task<Result>> tasks = new ();
List<Result> results = new ();
foreach (var request in myRequests) {
var task = request.ProcessAsync();
if (task.IsCompleted)
results.Add(task.Result); // or Add(await task) ?
else
tasks.Add(task);
}
// send results that are available "immediately" while waiting for the rest
if (results.Count > 0) SendResults(results);
results = await Task.WhenAll(tasks);
SendResults(results);
I'm not sure whether relying on IsCompleted might be a bad idea; could there be situations where its result cannot be trusted, or where it may change back to false again, etc.?
Similarly, could it be dangerous to use task.Result even after checking IsCompleted, should one always prefer await task? What if were using ValueTask instead of Task?
I'm not sure whether relying on IsCompleted might be a bad idea; could there be situations where its result cannot be trusted...
If you're in a multithreaded context, it's possible that IsCompleted could return false at the moment when you check on it, but it completes immediately thereafter. In cases like the code you're using, the cost of this happening would be very low, so I wouldn't worry about it.
or where it may change back to false again, etc.?
No, once a Task completes, it cannot uncomplete.
could it be dangerous to use task.Result even after checking IsCompleted.
Nope, that should always be safe.
should one always prefer await task?
await is a great default when you don't have a specific reason to do something else, but there are a variety of use cases where other patterns might be useful. The use case you've highlighted is a good example, where you want to return the results of finished tasks without awaiting all of them.
As Stephen Cleary mentioned in a comment below, it may still be worthwhile to use await to maintain expected exception behavior. You might consider doing something more like this:
var requestsByIsCompleted = myRequests.ToLookup(r => r.IsCompleted);
// send results that are available "immediately" while waiting for the rest
SendResults(await Task.WhenAll(requestsByIsCompleted[true]));
SendResults(await Task.WhenAll(requestsByIsCompleted[false]));
What if were using ValueTask instead of Task?
The answers above apply equally to both types.
You could use code like this to continually send the results of completed tasks while waiting on others to complete.
foreach (var request in myRequests)
{
tasks.Add(request.ProcessAsync());
}
// wait for at least one task to be complete, then send all available results
while (tasks.Count > 0)
{
// wait for at least one task to complete
Task.WaitAny(tasks.ToArray());
// send results for each completed task
var completedTasks = tasks.Where(t => t.IsCompleted);
var results = completedTasks.Where(t => t.IsCompletedSuccessfully).Select(t => t.Result).ToList();
SendResults(results);
// TODO: handle completed but failed tasks here
// remove completed tasks from the tasks list and keep waiting
tasks.RemoveAll(t => completedTasks.Contains(t));
}
Using only await you can achieve the desired behavior:
async Task ProcessAsync(MyRequest request, Sender sender)
{
var result = await request.ProcessAsync();
await sender.SendAsync(result);
}
...
async Task ProcessAll()
{
var tasks = new List<Task>();
foreach(var request in requests)
{
var task = ProcessAsync(request, sender);
// Dont await until all requests are queued up
tasks.Add(task);
}
// Await on all outstanding requests
await Task.WhenAll(tasks);
}
There are already good answers, but in addition of them here is my suggestion too, on how to handle multiple tasks and process each task differently, maybe it will suit your needs. My example is with events, but you can replace them with some kind of state management that fits your needs.
public interface IRequestHandler
{
event Func<object, Task> Ready;
Task ProcessAsync();
}
public class RequestHandler : IRequestHandler
{
// Hier where you wraps your request:
// private object request;
private readonly int value;
public RequestHandler(int value)
=> this.value = value;
public event Func<object, Task> Ready;
public async Task ProcessAsync()
{
await Task.Delay(1000 * this.value);
// Hier where you calls:
// var result = await request.ProcessAsync();
//... then do something over the result or wrap the call in try catch for example
var result = $"RequestHandler {this.value} - [{DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString()}]";
if (this.Ready is not null)
{
// If result passes send the result to all subscribers
await this.Ready.Invoke($"RequestHandler {this.value} - [{DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString()}]");
}
}
}
static void Main()
{
var a = new RequestHandler(1);
a.Ready += PrintAsync;
var b = new RequestHandler(2);
b.Ready += PrintAsync;
var c = new RequestHandler(3);
c.Ready += PrintAsync;
var d= new RequestHandler(4);
d.Ready += PrintAsync;
var e = new RequestHandler(5);
e.Ready += PrintAsync;
var f = new RequestHandler(6);
f.Ready += PrintAsync;
var requests = new List<IRequestHandler>()
{
a, b, c, d, e, f
};
var tasks = requests
.Select(x => Task.Run(x.ProcessAsync));
// Hier you must await all of the tasks
Task
.Run(async () => await Task.WhenAll(tasks))
.Wait();
}
static Task PrintAsync(object output)
{
Console.WriteLine(output);
return Task.CompletedTask;
}
I'm having trouble trying to correctly architect the most efficient way to iterate several async tasks launched from a request object and then performing some other async tasks that depend on both the request object and the result of the first async task. I'm running a C# lambda function in AWS. I've tried a model like this (error handling and such has been omitted for brevity):
public async Task MyAsyncWrapper()
{
List<Task> Tasks = new List<Task>();
foreach (var Request in Requests)
{
var Continuation = this.ExecuteAsync(Request).ContinueWith(async x => {
var KeyValuePair<bool, string> Result = x.Result;
if (Result.Key == true)
{
await this.DoSomethingElseAsync(Request.Id, Request.Name, Result.Value);
Console.WriteLine("COMPLETED");
}
}
Tasks.Add(Continuation);
}
Task.WaitAll(Tasks.ToArray());
}
This approach results in the DoSomethingElseAsync() method not really getting awaited on and in a lot of my Lambda Function calls, I never get the "COMPLETED" output. I've also approached this in this method:
public async Task MyAsyncWrapper()
{
foreach (var Request in Requests)
{
KeyValuePair<bool, string> Result = await this.ExecuteAsync(Request);
if (Result.Key == true)
{
await this.DoSomethingElseAsync(Request.Id, Request.Name, Result.Value);
Console.WriteLine("COMPLETED");
}
}
}
This works, but I think it's wasteful, since I can only execute one iteration of the loop while waiting on the asnyc's to finish. I also have referenced Interleaved Tasks but the issue is that I basically have two loops, one to populate the tasks, and another to iterate them after they've completed, where I don't have access to the original Request object anymore. So basically this:
List<Task<KeyValuePair<bool, string>>> Tasks = new List<Task<KeyValuePair<bool, string>>>();
foreach (var Request in Requests)
{
Tasks.Add(ths.ExecuteAsync(Request);
}
foreach (Task<KeyValuePair<bool, string>> ResultTask in Tasks.Interleaved())
{
KeyValuePair<bool, string> Result = ResultTask.Result;
//Can't access the original request for this method's parameters
await this.DoSomethingElseAsync(???, ???, Result.Value);
}
Any ideas on better ways to implement this type of async chaining in a foreach loop? My ideal approach wouldn't be to return the request object back as part of the response from ExecuteAsync(), so I'd like to try and find other options if possible.
I may be misinterpreting, but why not move your "iteration" into it's own function and then use Task.WhenAll to wait for all iterations in parallel.
public async Task MyAsyncWrapper()
{
var allTasks = Requests.Select(ProcessRequest);
await Task.WhenAll(allTasks);
}
private async Task ProcessRequest(Request request)
{
KeyValuePair<bool, string> Result = await this.ExecuteAsync(request);
if (Result.Key == true)
{
await this.DoSomethingElseAsync(request.Id, request.Name, Result.Value);
Console.WriteLine("COMPLETED");
}
}
Consider using TPL dataflow:
var a = new TransformBlock<Input, OutputA>(async Input i=>
{
// do something async.
return new OutputA();
});
var b = new TransformBlock<OutputA, OutputB>(async OutputA i =>
{
// do more async.
return new OutputB();
});
var c = new ActionBlock<OutputB>(async OutputB i =>
{
// do some final async.
});
a.LinkTo(b, new DataflowLinkOptions { PropogateCompletion = true });
b.LinkTo(c, new DataflowLinkOptions { PropogateCompletion = true });
// push all of the items into the dataflow.
a.Post(new Input());
a.Complete();
// wait for it all to complete.
await c.Completion;
I want to create a collection of awaitable tasks, so that I can start them together and asynchronously process the result from each one as they complete.
I have this code, and a compilation error:
> cannot assign void to an implicitly-typed variable
If I understand well, the tasks return by Select don't have a return type, even though the delegate passed returns ColetaIsisViewModel, I would think:
public MainViewModel()
{
Task.Run(LoadItems);
}
async Task LoadItems()
{
IEnumerable<Task> tasks = Directory.GetDirectories(somePath)
.Select(dir => new Task(() =>
new ItemViewModel(new ItemSerializer().Deserialize(dir))));
foreach (var task in tasks)
{
var result = await task; // <-- here I get the compilation error
DoSomething(result);
}
}
You shouldn't ever use the Task constructor.
Since you're calling synchronous code (Deserialize), you could use Task.Run:
async Task LoadItems()
{
var tasks = Directory.GetDirectories(somePath)
.Select(dir => Task.Run(() =>
new ItemViewModel(new ItemSerializer().Deserialize(dir))));
foreach (var task in tasks)
{
var result = await task;
DoSomething(result);
}
}
Alternatively, you could use Parallel or Parallel LINQ:
void LoadItems()
{
var vms = Directory.GetDirectories(somePath)
.AsParallel().Select(dir =>
new ItemViewModel(new ItemSerializer().Deserialize(dir)))
.ToList();
foreach (var vm in vms)
{
DoSomething(vm);
}
}
Or, if you make Deserialize a truly async method, then you can make it all asynchronous:
async Task LoadItems()
{
var tasks = Directory.GetDirectories(somePath)
.Select(async dir =>
new ItemViewModel(await new ItemSerializer().DeserializeAsync(dir))));
foreach (var task in tasks)
{
var result = await task;
DoSomething(result);
}
}
Also, I recommend that you do not use fire-and-forget in your constructor. There are better patterns for asynchronous constructors.
I know the question has been answered, but you can always do this too:
var serializer = new ItemSerializer();
var directories = Directory.GetDirectories(somePath);
foreach (string directory in directories)
{
await Task.Run(() => serializer.Deserialize(directory))
.ContinueWith(priorTask => DoSomething(priorTask.Result));
}
Notice I pulled out the serializer instantiation (assuming there are no side effects).
This question already has answers here:
Nesting await in Parallel.ForEach [duplicate]
(11 answers)
Closed last year.
I had such method:
public async Task<MyResult> GetResult()
{
MyResult result = new MyResult();
foreach(var method in Methods)
{
string json = await Process(method);
result.Prop1 = PopulateProp1(json);
result.Prop2 = PopulateProp2(json);
}
return result;
}
Then I decided to use Parallel.ForEach:
public async Task<MyResult> GetResult()
{
MyResult result = new MyResult();
Parallel.ForEach(Methods, async method =>
{
string json = await Process(method);
result.Prop1 = PopulateProp1(json);
result.Prop2 = PopulateProp2(json);
});
return result;
}
But now I've got an error:
An asynchronous module or handler completed while an asynchronous operation was still pending.
async doesn't work well with ForEach. In particular, your async lambda is being converted to an async void method. There are a number of reasons to avoid async void (as I describe in an MSDN article); one of them is that you can't easily detect when the async lambda has completed. ASP.NET will see your code return without completing the async void method and (appropriately) throw an exception.
What you probably want to do is process the data concurrently, just not in parallel. Parallel code should almost never be used on ASP.NET. Here's what the code would look like with asynchronous concurrent processing:
public async Task<MyResult> GetResult()
{
MyResult result = new MyResult();
var tasks = Methods.Select(method => ProcessAsync(method)).ToArray();
string[] json = await Task.WhenAll(tasks);
result.Prop1 = PopulateProp1(json[0]);
...
return result;
}
.NET 6 finally added Parallel.ForEachAsync, a way to schedule asynchronous work that allows you to control the degree of parallelism:
var urlsToDownload = new []
{
"https://dotnet.microsoft.com",
"https://www.microsoft.com",
"https://twitter.com/shahabfar"
};
var client = new HttpClient();
var options = new ParallelOptions { MaxDegreeOfParallelism = 2 };
await Parallel.ForEachAsync(urlsToDownload, options, async (url, token) =>
{
var targetPath = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), "http_cache", url);
var response = await client.GetAsync(url, token);
// The request will be canceled in case of an error in another URL.
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
using var target = File.OpenWrite(targetPath);
await response.Content.CopyToAsync(target);
}
});
Alternatively, with the AsyncEnumerator NuGet Package you can do this:
using System.Collections.Async;
public async Task<MyResult> GetResult()
{
MyResult result = new MyResult();
await Methods.ParallelForEachAsync(async method =>
{
string json = await Process(method);
result.Prop1 = PopulateProp1(json);
result.Prop2 = PopulateProp2(json);
}, maxDegreeOfParallelism: 10);
return result;
}
where ParallelForEachAsync is an extension method.
Ahh, okay. I think I know what's going on now. async method => an "async void" which is "fire and forget" (not recommended for anything other than event handlers). This means the caller cannot know when it is completed... So, GetResult returns while the operation is still running. Although the technical details of my first answer are incorrect, the result is the same here: that GetResult is returning while the operations started by ForEach are still running. The only thing you could really do is not await on Process (so that the lambda is no longer async) and wait for Process to complete each iteration. But, that will use at least one thread pool thread to do that and thus stress the pool slightly--likely making use of ForEach pointless. I would simply not use Parallel.ForEach...
I has a simple console app where I want to call many Urls in a loop and put the result in a database table. I am using .Net 4.5 and using async i/o to fetch the URL data. Here is a simplified version of what I am doing. All methods are async except for the database operation. Do you guys see any issues with this? Are there better ways of optimizing?
private async Task Run(){
var items = repo.GetItems(); // sync method to get list from database
var tasks = new List<Task>();
// add each call to task list and process result as it becomes available
// rather than waiting for all downloads
foreach(Item item in items){
tasks.Add(GetFromWeb(item.url).ContinueWith(response => { AddToDatabase(response.Result);}));
}
await Task.WhenAll(tasks); // wait for all tasks to complete.
}
private async Task<string> GetFromWeb(url) {
HttpResponseMessage response = await GetAsync(url);
return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
}
private void AddToDatabase(string item){
// add data to database.
}
Your solution is acceptable. But you should check out TPL Dataflow, which allows you to set up a dataflow "mesh" (or "pipeline") and then shove the data through it.
For a problem this simple, Dataflow won't really add much other than getting rid of the ContinueWith (I always find manual continuations awkward). But if you plan to add more steps or change your data flow in the future, Dataflow should be something you consider.
Your solution is pretty much correct, with just two minor mistakes (both of which cause compiler errors). First, you don't call ContinueWith on the result of List.Add, you need call continue with on the task and then add the continuation to your list, this is solved by just moving a parenthesis. You also need to call Result on the reponse Task.
Here is the section with the two minor changes:
tasks.Add(GetFromWeb(item.url)
.ContinueWith(response => { AddToDatabase(response.Result);}));
Another option is to leverage a method that takes a sequence of tasks and orders them by the order that they are completed. Here is my implementation of such a method:
public static IEnumerable<Task<T>> Order<T>(this IEnumerable<Task<T>> tasks)
{
var taskList = tasks.ToList();
var taskSources = new BlockingCollection<TaskCompletionSource<T>>();
var taskSourceList = new List<TaskCompletionSource<T>>(taskList.Count);
foreach (var task in taskList)
{
var newSource = new TaskCompletionSource<T>();
taskSources.Add(newSource);
taskSourceList.Add(newSource);
task.ContinueWith(t =>
{
var source = taskSources.Take();
if (t.IsCanceled)
source.TrySetCanceled();
else if (t.IsFaulted)
source.TrySetException(t.Exception.InnerExceptions);
else if (t.IsCompleted)
source.TrySetResult(t.Result);
}, CancellationToken.None, TaskContinuationOptions.PreferFairness, TaskScheduler.Default);
}
return taskSourceList.Select(tcs => tcs.Task);
}
Using this your code can become:
private async Task Run()
{
IEnumerable<Item> items = repo.GetItems(); // sync method to get list from database
foreach (var task in items.Select(item => GetFromWeb(item.url))
.Order())
{
await task.ConfigureAwait(false);
AddToDatabase(task.Result);
}
}
Just though I'd throw in my hat as well with the Rx solution
using System.Reactive;
using System.Reactive.Linq;
private Task Run()
{
var fromWebObservable = from item in repo.GetItems.ToObservable(Scheduler.Default)
select GetFromWeb(item.url);
fromWebObservable
.Select(async x => await x)
.Do(AddToDatabase)
.ToTask();
}