C# – If the interface must return Task what is the best way to have a no-operation implementation

async-awaitcnettask-parallel-librarythreadpool

In the code below, due to the interface, the class LazyBar must return a task from its method (and for argument's sake can't be changed). If LazyBars implementation is unusual in that it happens to run quickly and synchronously – what is the best way to return a No-Operation task from the method?

I have gone with Task.Delay(0) below, however I would like to know if this has any performance side-effects if the function is called a lot (for argument's sake, say hundreds of times a second):

  • Does this syntactic sugar un-wind to something big?
  • Does it start clogging up my application's thread pool?
  • Is the compiler cleaver enough to deal with Delay(0) differently?
  • Would return Task.Run(() => { }); be any different?

Is there a better way?

using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace MyAsyncTest
{
    internal interface IFooFace
    {
        Task WillBeLongRunningAsyncInTheMajorityOfImplementations();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// An implementation, that unlike most cases, will not have a long-running
    /// operation in 'WillBeLongRunningAsyncInTheMajorityOfImplementations'
    /// </summary>
    internal class LazyBar : IFooFace
    {
        #region IFooFace Members

        public Task WillBeLongRunningAsyncInTheMajorityOfImplementations()
        {
            // First, do something really quick
            var x = 1;

            // Can't return 'null' here! Does 'Task.Delay(0)' have any performance considerations?
            // Is it a real no-op, or if I call this a lot, will it adversely affect the
            // underlying thread-pool? Better way?
            return Task.Delay(0);

            // Any different?
            // return Task.Run(() => { });

            // If my task returned something, I would do:
            // return Task.FromResult<int>(12345);
        }

        #endregion
    }

    internal class Program
    {
        private static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Test();
        }

        private static async void Test()
        {
            IFooFace foo = FactoryCreate();
            await foo.WillBeLongRunningAsyncInTheMajorityOfImplementations();
            return;
        }

        private static IFooFace FactoryCreate()
        {
            return new LazyBar();
        }
    }
}

Best Answer

Today, I would recommend using Task.CompletedTask to accomplish this.

Pre .net 4.6:

Using Task.FromResult(0) or Task.FromResult<object>(null) will incur less overhead than creating a Task with a no-op expression. When creating a Task with a result pre-determined, there is no scheduling overhead involved.

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