Is Task.Factory.StartNew() guaranteed to create at least one new thread?

Question

I understand that the TPL does not necessarily create a new thread for every task in a parallel set, but does it always create at least one? eg:

private void MyF         


        

Answer 1

Your main question and the question in your code are completely different questions. But the answers to the two questions are:

1) No, there's no guarantee a thread will be started. What is created and started is a task. Ultimately, some thread will have to execute that task, but whether one will be created is unspecified. An existing thread could be re-used.

2) It depends what you mean by "immediately". Strictly speaking, there is no timeliness guarantee. But you have told the system to execute that task, and it will at least start it as soon as it finishes everything it considers more important. Strict fairness or timeliness is not guaranteed.