Question

I’m trying to write a really simple bit of async code. I have a void method that doesn’t take any parameters, which is to be called from a Windows service. I want to kick it off async, so that the service doesn’t have to hang around waiting for the method to finish.

I created a very simple test app to make sure I was doing the coding right, but the async method just isn’t being called. Anyone able to see what I’ve done wrong? I’m using .NET 4.0 by the way, so I can’t use await (which would be a whole lot simpler!).

Here is my entire test sample…

using System;
using System.Threading;

namespace AsyncCallback {
  internal class Program {
    private static void Main(string[] args) {
      Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToLocalTime().ToLongTimeString() + " - About to ask for stuff to be done");
      new Action(DoStuff).BeginInvoke(ar => StuffDone(), null);
      Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToLocalTime().ToLongTimeString() + " - Asked for stuff to be done");
    }

    private static void StuffDone() {
      Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToLocalTime().ToLongTimeString() + " - Stuff done");
    }

    private static void DoStuff() {
      Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToLocalTime().ToLongTimeString() + " - Starting to do stuff");
      Thread.Sleep(1000);
      Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToLocalTime().ToLongTimeString() + " - Ending doing stuff");
    }
  }
}

Thanks for any help you can give.

Answer 1

Your program is terminating before the async method gets deployed in the ThreadPool. Keep your program open for a bit. Perhaps Console.ReadKey() at the end of Main?