Kotlin: withContext() vs Async-await

Question

I have been reading kotlin docs, and if I understood correctly the two Kotlin functions work as follows :

1. withContext(context): switches the contex

Answer 1

Isn't it always better to use withContext rather than asynch-await as it is funcationally similar, but doesn't create another coroutine. Large numebrs coroutines, though lightweight could still be a problem in demanding applications

Is there a case asynch-await is more preferable to withContext

You should use async/await when you want to execute multiple tasks concurrently, for example:

runBlocking {
    val deferredResults = arrayListOf>()

    deferredResults += async {
        delay(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
        "1"
    }

    deferredResults += async {
        delay(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
        "2"
    }

    deferredResults += async {
        delay(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
        "3"
    }

    //wait for all results (at this point tasks are running)
    val results = deferredResults.map { it.await() }
    println(results)
}

If you don't need to run multiple tasks concurrently you can use withContext.