Question

I’m printing out the Messages property string list in AsyncDemoViewModel.

If i use Thread.Sleep(1000) in GetVideosSlowlyAsync() the output is

Time spent: 4001 milliseconds 

 - Started on thread 18, finished on thread 18  
 - Started on thread 18, finished on thread 18  
 - Started on thread 18, finished on thread 18 
 - Started on thread 18, finished on thread 18

If i use await Task.Delay(1000) in GetVideosSlowlyAsync() the output is

Time spent: 4053 milliseconds 


 - Started on thread 12, finished on thread 19 
 - Started on thread 19, finished on thread 16 
 - Started on thread 16, finished on thread 19 
 - Started on thread 19, finished on thread 9

Why is the await call not freeing up the calling thread ? I was expecting the await version to be about 4x faster in completion time.

Controller code:

public class AsyncDemoController : Controller
{
    private DepartmentDb _db;

    public AsyncDemoController(DepartmentDb db)
    {
        _db = db; 
    }

    public async Task<ActionResult> Index()
    {

        var sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        var v1 = await GetVideosSlowlyAsync();
        var v2 = await GetVideosSlowlyAsync();
        var v3 = await GetVideosSlowlyAsync();
        var v4 = await GetVideosSlowlyAsync();

        var vm = new AsyncDemoViewModel() {Videos = v1.Item2, Messages = new List<string>()};
        sw.Stop();
        vm.Messages.Add(string.Format("Time spent: {0} milliseconds", sw.ElapsedMilliseconds));
        vm.Messages.Add(v1.Item1);
        vm.Messages.Add(v2.Item1);
        vm.Messages.Add(v3.Item1);
        vm.Messages.Add(v4.Item1);

        return View(vm);
    }

    private async Task<Tuple<string, IEnumerable<Video>>> GetVideosSlowlyAsync()
    {
        var t1 = Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId;
        await Task.Delay(1000); // Thread.Sleep(1000);
        var t2 = Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId;
        return Tuple.Create(string.Format("Started on thread {0}, finished on thread {1}", t1, t2), _db.Videos.AsEnumerable());
    }

}

Answer 1

The await method wait’s for the GetVideosSlowlyAsync method to complete. You need to move the await to the place where the result of the operation is needed:

public async Task<ActionResult> Index()
{

    var sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    var v1 = GetVideosSlowlyAsync();
    var v2 = GetVideosSlowlyAsync();
    var v3 = GetVideosSlowlyAsync();
    var v4 = GetVideosSlowlyAsync();

    var vm = new AsyncDemoViewModel() {Videos = (await v1).Item2, Messages = new List<string>()};
    sw.Stop();
    vm.Messages.Add(string.Format("Time spent: {0} milliseconds", sw.ElapsedMilliseconds));
    vm.Messages.Add((await v1).Item1);
    vm.Messages.Add((await v2).Item1);
    vm.Messages.Add((await v3).Item1);
    vm.Messages.Add((await v4).Item1);

    return View(vm);
}