How can I implement an exhaustMap handler in Rx.Net?

Question

I am looking for something similar to the exhaustMap operator from rxjs, but RX.NET does not seem to have such an operator.

What I need to achieve is that, upon every element of the source stream, I need to start an async handler, and until it finishes, I would like to drop any elements from the source. As soon as the handler finishes, resume taking elements.

What I don't want is to start an async handler upon every element - while the handler runs, I want to drop source elements.

I also suspect I need to cleverly use the defer operator here?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Here is an implementation of the ExhaustMap operator. The source observable is projected to an IObservable<(Task<TResult>, int)>, where each subsequent task is either the previous one if it's still running, or otherwise a new task associated with the current item. Repeated occurrences of the same task are then removed with the DistinctUntilChanged operator, and finally the observable is flattened with the Concat operator.

/// <summary>Invokes an asynchronous function for each element of an observable
/// sequence, ignoring elements that are emitted before the completion of an
/// asynchronous function of a preceding element.</summary>
public static IObservable<TResult> ExhaustMap<TSource, TResult>(
    this IObservable<TSource> source,
    Func<TSource, Task<TResult>> function)
{
    return source
        .Scan((Task: Task.FromResult<TResult>(default), Id: 0), (previous, item) =>
            !previous.Task.IsCompleted ? previous : (function(item), unchecked(previous.Id + 1)))
        .DistinctUntilChanged()
        .Select(e => e.Task)
        .Concat();
}

The tasks returned by the function are not guaranteed to be distinct. For example the method async Task<T> Return<T>(T result) => result; returns always the same Task for result = 1 or result = false. Hence the need for the incremented Id in the above implementation, that individualizes the tasks, so that the DistinctUntilChanged doesn't filter out tasks from separate function invocations.

Usage example:

Observable
    .Interval(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(200))
    .Select(x => (int)x + 1)
    .Take(10)
    .Do(x => Console.WriteLine($"Produced #{x}"))
    .ExhaustMap(async x => { await Task.Delay(x % 3 == 0 ? 500 : 100); return x; })
    .Do(x => Console.WriteLine($"--Result: {x}"))
    .Wait();

Output:

Produced #1
--Result: 1
Produced #2
--Result: 2
Produced #3
Produced #4
Produced #5
--Result: 3
Produced #6
Produced #7
Produced #8
--Result: 6
Produced #9
Produced #10

Online demo.

---

Here is an alternative implementation of the ExhaustMap, where the function produces an IObservable<TResult> instead of a Task<TResult>:

/// <summary>Projects each element to an observable sequence, which is merged
/// in the output observable sequence only if the previous projected observable
/// sequence has completed.</summary>
public static IObservable<TResult> ExhaustMap<TSource, TResult>(
    this IObservable<TSource> source,
    Func<TSource, IObservable<TResult>> function)
{
    return Observable.Defer(() =>
    {
        int mutex = 0; // 0: not acquired, 1: acquired
        return source.SelectMany(item =>
        {
            // Attempt to acquire the mutex immediately. If successful, return
            // a sequence that releases the mutex when terminated. Otherwise,
            // return immediately an empty sequence.
            if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref mutex, 1, 0) == 0)
                return function(item).Finally(() => Volatile.Write(ref mutex, 0));
            return Observable.Empty<TResult>();
        });
    });
}