book

C# Concurrency

Name: C# Concurrency
Author: Nir Dobovizki
ISBN: 9781633438651

by Nir Dobovizki

February 2025

Intermediate to advanced

248 pages

6h 36m

English

Manning Publications

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C# Concurrency
Copyright
dedication
contents
front matter
prefaceacknowledgmentsabout this bookWho should read this bookHow this book is organized: A road mapAbout the codeliveBook discussion forumabout the authorabout the cover illustration
Part 1. Asynchronous programming and multithreading basics
1 Asynchronous programming and multithreading
1.1 What is multithreading?1.2 Introducing multicore CPUs1.3 Asynchronous programming1.4 Using multithreading and asynchronous programming together1.5 Software efficiency and cloud computingSummary
2 The compiler rewrites your code
2.1 Lambda functions2.2 Yield returnSummary
3 The async and await keywords
3.1 Asynchronous code complexity3.2 Introducing Task and Task<T>3.2.1 Are we there yet?3.2.2 Wake me up when we get there3.2.3 The synchronous option3.2.4 After the task has completed3.3 How does async/await work?3.4 async void methods3.5 ValueTask and ValueTask<T>3.6 What about multithreading?Summary
4 Multithreading basics
4.1 Different ways to run in another thread4.1.1 Thread.Start4.1.2 The thread pool4.1.3 Task.Run4.2 Accessing the same variables from multiple threads4.2.1 No shared data4.2.2 Immutable shared data4.2.3 Locks and mutexes4.2.4 Deadlocks4.3 Special considerations for native UI apps4.4 Waiting for another thread4.5 Other synchronization methods4.6 Thread settings4.6.1 Thread background status4.6.2 Language and locale4.6.3 COM Apartment4.6.4 Current user4.6.5 Thread prioritySummary

5 async/await and multithreading
5.1 Asynchronous programming and multithreading5.2 Where does code run after await?5.3 Locks and async/await5.4 UI threadsSummary
6 When to use async/await
6.1 Asynchronous benefits on servers6.2 Asynchronous benefits on native client applications6.3 The downside of async/await6.3.1 Asynchronous programming is contagious6.3.2 Asynchronous programming has more edge cases6.3.3 Multithreading has even more edge cases6.3.4 async/await is expensive6.4 When to use async/awaitSummary
7 Classic multithreading pitfalls and how to avoid them
7.1 Partial updates7.2 Memory access reordering7.3 Deadlocks7.4 Race conditions7.5 Synchronization7.6 StarvationSummary
Part 2. Advanced uses of async/await and multithreading
8 Processing a sequence of items in the background
8.1 Processing items in parallel8.1.1 Processing items in parallel with the Thread class8.1.2 Processing items in parallel with the thread pool8.1.3 Asynchronously processing items in parallel8.1.4 The Parallel class8.2 Processing items sequentially in the background8.2.1 Processing items sequentially in the background with the Thread class8.2.2 The work queue pattern and BlockingCollection8.2.3 Processing important items with persistent queuesSummary
9 Canceling background tasks
9.1 Introducing CancellationToken9.2 Canceling using an exception9.3 Getting a callback when the caller cancels our operation9.4 Implementing timeouts9.5 Combining cancellation methods9.6 Special cancellation tokensSummary
10 Await your own events
10.1 Introducing TaskCompletionSource10.2 Choosing where continuations run10.3 Example: Waiting for initialization10.4 Example: Adapting old APIs10.5 Old-style asynchronous operations (BeginXXX, EndXXX)10.6 Example: Asynchronous data structuresSummary
11 Controlling on which thread your asynchronous code runs
11.1 await-threading behavior11.1.1 await in UI threads11.1.2 await in non-UI threads11.2 Synchronization contexts11.3 Breaking away—ConfigureAwait(false)11.4 More ConfigureAwait options11.5 Letting other code run: Task.Yield11.6 Task schedulersSummary
12 Exceptions and async/await
12.1 Exceptions and asynchronous code12.2 await and AggregateException12.3 The case of the lost exception12.4 Exceptions and async void methodsSummary
13 Thread-safe collections
13.1 The problems with using regular collections13.2 The concurrent collections13.2.1 ConcurrentDictionary<TKey,TValue>13.2.2 BlockingCollection<T>13.2.3 Async alternatives for BlockingCollection13.2.4 ConcurrentQueue<T> and ConcurrentStack<T>13.2.5 ConcurrentBag<T>13.2.6 When to use the concurrent collections13.2.7 When not to use the concurrent collections13.3 The immutable collections13.3.1 How immutable collections work13.3.2 How to use the immutable collections13.3.3 ImmutableInterlocked13.3.4 ImmutableDictionary<TKey,TValue>13.3.5 ImmutableHashSet<T> and ImmutableSortedSet<T>13.3.6 ImmutableList<T>13.3.7 ImmutableQueue<T> and ImmutableStack<T>13.3.8 ImmutableArray<T>13.3.9 When to use the immutable collections13.4 The frozen collections13.4.1 When to use the frozen collectionsSummary
14 Generating collections asynchronously/await foreach and IAsyncEnumerable
14.1 Iterating over an asynchronous collection14.2 Generating an asynchronous collection14.3 Canceling an asynchronous collection14.4 Other options14.5 IAsyncEnumerable<T> and LINQ14.6 Example: Iterating over asynchronously retrieved data14.7 Example: BlockingCollection<T>-like asynchronous queueSummary
index

Content preview from C# Concurrency

6 When to use async/await

This chapter covers

The importance of async/await
The disadvantages of async/await
Deciding when to use async/await and when to avoid it

You probably won’t find it surprising that I, the author of a book about multithreading and asynchronous programming, think that they are important, useful, and something that every software developer should know. However, it’s important to acknowledge that they are not suitable for every situation, and if used inappropriately, they will make your software more complicated and create some bugs that are really difficult to find.

This chapter talks about the performance gains of multithreading and asynchronous programming, as well as how asynchronous programming can backfire sometimes ...

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C# Concurrency

by Nir Dobovizki

6 When to use async/await

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