Summary
In this chapter, we learned all about the various blocks in the TPL Dataflow library. We started by learning a little about each block type and providing a brief code snippet for each. Next, we created a practical example that implemented the producer/consumer pattern to fetch blog data from three different Microsoft blogs. We also examined TransformBlock, TransformManyBlock, and JoinBlock more closely in .NET console applications. You should now feel confident in your ability to use some of the dataflow blocks in your applications to automate some complex data workflows.
If you would like some additional reading about the TPL Dataflow library, you can download Introduction to TPL Dataflow from the Microsoft Download Center: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=14782.
In the next chapter, Chapter 8, we will take a closer look at the collections in the System.Collections.Concurrent namespace. We will also discover some practical uses of PLINQ in modern...