Book Image

Parallel Programming and Concurrency with C# 10 and .NET 6

By : Alvin Ashcraft
5 (1)
Book Image

Parallel Programming and Concurrency with C# 10 and .NET 6

5 (1)
By: Alvin Ashcraft

Overview of this book

.NET has included managed threading capabilities since the beginning, but early techniques had inherent risks: memory leaks, thread synchronization issues, and deadlocks. This book will help you avoid those pitfalls and leverage the modern constructs available in .NET 6 and C# 10, while providing recommendations on patterns and best practices for parallelism and concurrency. Parallel, concurrent, and asynchronous programming are part of every .NET application today, and it becomes imperative for modern developers to understand how to effectively use these techniques. This book will teach intermediate-level .NET developers how to make their applications faster and more responsive with parallel programming and concurrency in .NET and C# with practical examples. The book starts with the essentials of multi-threaded .NET development and explores how the language and framework constructs have evolved along with .NET. You will later get to grips with the different options available today in .NET 6, followed by insights into best practices, debugging, and unit testing. By the end of this book, you will have a deep understanding of why, when, and how to employ parallelism and concurrency in any .NET application.

Related Content you might be interested in

Current Title:

Small book image
Parallel Programming and Concurrency with C# 10 and .NET 6
Alvin Ashcraft
Aug, 2022 | 320 pages
No titles found
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Share Your Thoughts
1
Part 1:Introduction to Threading in .NET
Part 1:Introduction to Threading in .NET
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Managed Threading Concepts
Chapter 1: Managed Threading Concepts
Technical requirements
.NET threading basics
Creating and destroying threads
Handling threading exceptions
Synchronizing data across threads
Scheduling and canceling work
Summary
Questions
3
Chapter 2: Evolution of Multithreaded Programming in .NET
Chapter 2: Evolution of Multithreaded Programming in .NET
Technical requirements
.NET threading through the years
Beyond threading basics
Introduction to parallelism
Introduction to concurrency
Basics of async and await
Choosing the right path forward
Summary
Questions
4
Chapter 3: Best Practices for Managed Threading
Chapter 3: Best Practices for Managed Threading
Technical requirements
Handling static objects
Managing deadlocks and race conditions
Threading limits and other recommendations
Summary
Questions
5
Chapter 4: User Interface Responsiveness and Threading
Chapter 4: User Interface Responsiveness and Threading
Technical requirements
Leveraging background threads
Using the thread pool
Updating the UI thread without exceptions
Summary
Questions
6
Part 2: Parallel Programming and Concurrency with C#
Part 2: Parallel Programming and Concurrency with C#
7
Chapter 5: Asynchronous Programming with C#
Chapter 5: Asynchronous Programming with C#
Technical requirements
More about asynchronous programming in .NET
Working with Task objects
Interop with synchronous code
Working with multiple background tasks
Asynchronous programming best practices
Summary
Questions
8
Chapter 6: Parallel Programming Concepts
Chapter 6: Parallel Programming Concepts
Technical requirements
Getting started with the TPL
Parallel loops in .NET
Relationships between parallel tasks
Common pitfalls with parallelism
Summary
Questions
9
Chapter 7: Task Parallel Library (TPL) and Dataflow
Chapter 7: Task Parallel Library (TPL) and Dataflow
Technical requirements
Introducing the TPL Dataflow library
Implementing the producer/consumer pattern
Creating a data pipeline with multiple blocks
Manipulating data from multiple data sources
Summary
Questions
10
Chapter 8: Parallel Data Structures and Parallel LINQ
Chapter 8: Parallel Data Structures and Parallel LINQ
Technical requirements
Introducing PLINQ
Converting LINQ queries to PLINQ
Preserving data order and merging data with PLINQ
Data structures for parallel programming in .NET
Summary
Questions
11
Chapter 9: Working with Concurrent Collections in .NET
Chapter 9: Working with Concurrent Collections in .NET
Technical requirements
Using BlockingCollection
Using ConcurrentBag
Using ConcurrentDictionary
Using ConcurrentQueue
Using ConcurrentStack
Summary
Questions
12
Part 3: Advanced Concurrency Concepts
Part 3: Advanced Concurrency Concepts
13
Chapter 10: Debugging Multithreaded Applications with Visual Studio
Chapter 10: Debugging Multithreaded Applications with Visual Studio
Technical requirements
Introducing multithreaded debugging
Debugging threads and processes
Switching and flagging threads
Debugging a parallel application
Summary
Questions
14
Chapter 11: Canceling Asynchronous Work
Chapter 11: Canceling Asynchronous Work
Technical requirements
Canceling managed threads
Canceling parallel work
Discovering patterns for thread cancellation
Handling multiple cancellation sources
Summary
Questions
15
Chapter 12: Unit Testing Async, Concurrent, and Parallel Code
Chapter 12: Unit Testing Async, Concurrent, and Parallel Code
Technical requirements
Unit testing asynchronous code
Unit testing concurrent code
Unit testing parallel code
Checking for memory leaks with unit tests
Summary
Questions
16
Assessments
Assessments
Chapter 1, Managed Threading Concepts
Chapter 2, Evolution of Multithreaded Programming in .NET
Chapter 3, Best Practices for Managed Threading
Chapter 4, User Interface Responsiveness and Threading
Chapter 5, Asynchronous Programming with C#
Chapter 6, Parallel Programming Concepts
Chapter 7, Task Parallel Library (TPL) and Dataflow
Chapter 8, Parallel Data Structures and Parallel LINQ
Chapter 9, Working with Concurrent Collections in .NET
Chapter 10, Debugging Multithreaded Applications with Visual Studio
Chapter 11, Canceling Asynchronous Work
Chapter 12, Unit Testing Async, Concurrent, and Parallel Code
Why subscribe?
17
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
Packt is searching for authors like you
Share Your Thoughts

To get the most out of this book

To follow along with the examples in this book, the following software is recommended for Windows developers:

  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0 or later
  • .NET 6

While these are recommended, if you have the .NET 6 SDK installed, you can use your preferred editor for most of the examples. For example, Visual Studio 2022 for Mac on macOS 10.13 or later, JetBrains Rider, or Visual Studio Code will work just as well. However, for any WPF or WinForms projects, Visual Studio and Windows are required. Newer versions of Visual Studio and .NET, when they are released, should also work with the examples in this book.

You are expected to have a foundational knowledge of C# and .NET with a working knowledge of Language Integrated Query (LINQ).

The most recent Visual Studio 2022 install instructions and prerequisites can always be found on Microsoft Docs here: https://docs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/install/install-visual-studio?view=vs-2022.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code from the book’s GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

If you are unfamiliar with LINQ, there is a great C# reference on Microsoft Docs to get you started before working through the examples in this book: https://docs.microsoft.com/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/concepts/linq/.

After reading this book, I would also recommend exploring the posts on the .NET Parallel Programming team blog. Most of the articles are several years old, but they explore the thinking behind many of the decisions made when building the .NET libraries that expose parallel programming constructs: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/pfxteam/.

Previous Section
Next Section