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C# Asynchronous Programming Guideline Cheat Sheet

Async Await Best Practices Cheat Sheet

Summary of Asynchronous Programming Guidelines

Name Description Exceptions
Avoid async void Prefer async Task methods over async void methods Event handlers
Async all the way Don't mix blocking and async code Console main method
Configure context Use ConfigureAwait(false) when you can Methods that require con­text

The Async Way of Doing Things

To Do This ... Instead of This ... Use This
Retrieve the result of a background task Task.Wait or Task.Result await
Wait for any task to complete Task.WaitAny await Task.WhenAny
Retrieve the results of multiple tasks Task.WaitAll await Task.WhenAll
Wait a period of time Thread.Sleep await Task.Delay

Know Your Tools

There's a lot to learn about async and await, and it's natural to get a little disoriented. Here's a quick reference of solutions to common problems.

Solutions to Common Async Problems

Problem Solution
Create a task to execute code Task.Run or TaskFactory.StartNew (not the Task constructor or Task.Start)
Create a task wrapper for an operation or event TaskFactory.FromAsync or TaskCompletionSource<T>
Support cancellation CancellationTokenSource and CancellationToken
Report progress IProgress<T> and Progress<T>
Handle streams of data TPL Dataflow or Reactive Extensions
Synchronize access to a shared resource SemaphoreSlim
Asynchronously initialize a resource AsyncLazy<T>
Async-ready producer/consumer structures TPL Dataflow or AsyncCollection<T>

Async and Await Guidelines

Read the Task-based Asynchronous Pattern (TAP) document. It is extremely well-written, and includes guidance on API design and the proper use of async/await (including cancellation and progress reporting).

There are many new await-friendly techniques that should be used instead of the old blocking techniques. If you have any of these Old examples in your new async code, you're Doing It Wrong(TM):

Old New Description
task.Wait await task Wait/await for a task to complete
task.Result await task Get the result of a completed task
Task.WaitAny await Task.WhenAny Wait/await for one of a collection of tasks to complete
Task.WaitAll await Task.WhenAll Wait/await for every one of a collection of tasks to complete
Thread.Sleep await Task.Delay Wait/await for a period of time
Task constructor Task.Run or TaskFactory.StartNew Create a code-based task

Source http://blog.stephencleary.com/2012/02/async-and-await.html

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@treker7
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treker7 commented Sep 20, 2022

Thanks for summary. Was nice to read through.

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