I recently read Stephen Cleary's post regarding possible deadlocks that occur when we call async code in synchronous methods here: https://blog.stephencleary.com/2012/07/dont-block-on-async-code.html
Regarding a slightly modified example here (all I added was a writeline code):
// My "library" method.
public static async Task<JObject> GetJsonAsync(Uri uri)
{
Console.WriteLine("Before await");
using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
var jsonString = await client.GetStringAsync(uri).ConfigureAwait(true);
return JObject.Parse(jsonString);
}
}
// My "top-level" method.
public void Button1_Click(...)
{
var jsonTask = GetJsonAsync(...);
textBox1.Text = jsonTask.Result;
}
His explanation is that the top-level method is blocking the UI thread waiting for GetJsonAsync
to finish whereas GetJsonAsync
is waiting for the UI thread to be freed so it can finish executing.
My question is, isn't GetJsonAsync
already on the UI thread? Why would it need to wait for it to be freed? According to this post here calling async functions don't necessarily create another thread for the method to execute on. So how would it cause an issue with the UI thread if GetJsonAsync
was executing on the UI thread the entire time? Like when Console.WriteLine()
is executed where is this done, if not on the UI thread? I feel like I'm missing something here but don't know what.
Clarification: At which point does the execution leave the UI thread/context and need to return? There so much discussion about needing to return but never when it leaves the thread/context.
I recommend reading my
async
intro. In summary:Every asynchronous method begins executing synchronously. This code:
calls
GetJsonAsync
on the UI thread, and it does begin executing on the UI thread. It executesConsole.WriteLine
on the UI thread,new
s up a client on the UI thread, and even callsGetStringAsync
on the UI thread. It gets a task back from that method, and thenawait
s it (I'm ignoring theConfigureAwait(true)
for simplicity).The
await
is the point at which things may become asynchronous. The task isn't complete (i.e., the client hasn't received the string yet), soGetJsonAsync
returns an incomplete task to its caller. ThenButton1_Click
blocks the UI thread, waiting for that task to complete (by calling.Result
).So, the state is currently
GetJsonAsync
is no longer running on the UI thread. It is not actually "running" anywhere.Later, when that string result arrives, the task that was returned from
GetStringAsync
is completed, andGetJsonAsync
needs to resume executing. It's not already on the UI thread; it's not anywhere at the moment. Since theawait
captured a UI context, it will attempt to resume on that context (on the UI thread).