Async / Await

Fundamental Concepts of Asynchronous Programming

Asynchronous programming allows an application to perform multiple tasks at the same time without blocking the main thread.
In C#, the async keyword is used to mark a method as asynchronous, while await is used to wait for the completion of a task.

Benefits:

• Improves application performance and responsiveness.
• Allows executing I/O (input/output) operations without blocking the main flow.
• Makes it easier to write more readable code compared to traditional callbacks.

Basic Example

public async Task<string> GetDataAsync()
{
    await Task.Delay(2000); // Simulates an asynchronous process
    return "Data obtained";
}

Practical Exercises with async & await

1. Create a method that waits for 3 seconds and then returns a message in the console.\
2. Make an asynchronous call to a public API using HttpClient and display the result.\
3. Execute multiple asynchronous tasks in parallel and combine their results.

---

Task Management (Tasks)

The Task class represents an asynchronous operation that can return a result.
There are different ways to declare and use tasks in C#.

Example with simple Task

public async Task SimpleProcess()
{
    await Task.Delay(1000);
    Console.WriteLine("Process completed");
}

Task Examples with Different Return Types

Task<IEnumerable<string>>

public async Task<IEnumerable<string>> GetNamesAsync()
{
    await Task.Delay(500);
    return new List<string> { "Ana", "Luis", "Carlos" };
}

Task<Dictionary<int, string>>

public async Task<Dictionary<int, string>> GetDictionaryAsync()
{
    await Task.Delay(500);
    return new Dictionary<int, string>
    {
        { 1, "One" },
        { 2, "Two" },
        { 3, "Three" }
    };
}

Task<object>

public async Task<object> GetObjectAsync()
{
    await Task.Delay(500);
    return new { Id = 1, Name = "Example" };
}

Task<(int, string)>

public async Task<(int, string)> GetTupleAsync()
{
    await Task.Delay(500);
    return (1, "Data");
}

Task<int>

public async Task<int> CalculateSumAsync(int a, int b)
{
    await Task.Delay(500);
    return a + b;
}

---