Question

A coworker showed me some code in which they’re processing an uploaded file in ASP.NET Web Api. It was something like this:

    Task<IEnumerable<HttpContent>> task = Request.Content.ReadAsMultipartAsync(provider);

    return task.ContinueWith<HttpResponseMessage>(contents =>
    {
        //Do stuff...
    }

What is the benefit of reading the file asynchronously?

Answer 1

Reading the file from the network socket is an I/O bound operation. Doing it asynchronously ensures that you are not jeopardizing worker threads on the server during this reading but you are taking advantage of an I/O Completion Port.