How to call an async method from a getter or setter?

问题

What\'d be the most elegant way to call an async method from a getter or setter in C#?

Here\'s some pseudo-code to help explain myself.

async Task<IEnumerable> MyAsyncMethod()
{
    return await DoSomethingAsync();
}

public IEnumerable MyList
{
    get
    {
         //call MyAsyncMethod() here
    }
}

回答1:

There is no technical reason that async properties are not allowed in C#. It was a purposeful design decision, because "asynchronous properties" is an oxymoron.

Properties should return current values; they should not be kicking off background operations.

Usually, when someone wants an "asynchronous property", what they really want is one of these:

An asynchronous method that returns a value. In this case, change the property to an async method.
A value that can be used in data-binding but must be calculated/retrieved asynchronously. In this case, either use an async factory method for the containing object or use an async InitAsync() method. The data-bound value will be default(T) until the value is calculated/retrieved.
A value that is expensive to create, but should be cached for future use. In this case, use AsyncLazy from my blog or AsyncEx library. This will give you an awaitable property.

Update: I cover asynchronous properties in one of my recent "async OOP" blog posts.

回答2:

You can't call it asynchronously, since there is no asynchronous property support, only async methods. As such, there are two options, both taking advantage of the fact that asynchronous methods in the CTP are really just a method that returns Task<T> or Task:

// Make the property return a Task<T>
public Task<IEnumerable> MyList
{
    get
    {
         // Just call the method
         return MyAsyncMethod();
    }
}

Or:

// Make the property blocking
public IEnumerable MyList
{
    get
    {
         // Block via .Result
         return MyAsyncMethod().Result;
    }
}

回答3:

I really needed the call to originate from the get method, due to my decoupled architecture. So I came up with the following implementation.

Usage: Title is in a ViewModel or an object you could statically declare as a page resource. Bind to it and the value will get populated without blocking the UI, when getTitle() returns.

string _Title;
public string Title
{
    get
    {
        if (_Title == null)
        {   
            Deployment.Current.Dispatcher.InvokeAsync(async () => { Title = await getTitle(); });
        }
        return _Title;
    }
    set
    {
        if (value != _Title)
        {
            _Title = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged("Title");
        }
    }
}

回答4:

I think that we can await for the value just returning first null and then get the real value, so in the case of Pure MVVM (PCL project for instance) I think the following is the most elegant solution:

private IEnumerable myList;
public IEnumerable MyList
{
  get
    { 
      if(myList == null)
         InitializeMyList();
      return myList;
     }
  set
     {
        myList = value;
        NotifyPropertyChanged();
     }
}

private async void InitializeMyList()
{
   MyList = await AzureService.GetMyList();
}

回答5:

I thought .GetAwaiter().GetResult() was exactly the solution to this problem, no? eg:

string _Title;
public string Title
{
    get
    {
        if (_Title == null)
        {   
            _Title = getTitle().GetAwaiter().GetResult();
        }
        return _Title;
    }
    set
    {
        if (value != _Title)
        {
            _Title = value;
            RaisePropertyChanged("Title");
        }
    }
}

回答6:

You can use Task like this :

public int SelectedTab
        {
            get => selected_tab;
            set
            {
                selected_tab = value;

                new Task(async () =>
                {
                    await newTab.ScaleTo(0.8);
                }).Start();
            }
        }

回答7:

Since your "async property" is in a viewmodel, you could use AsyncMVVM:

class MyViewModel : AsyncBindableBase
{
    public string Title
    {
        get
        {
            return Property.Get(GetTitleAsync);
        }
    }

    private async Task<string> GetTitleAsync()
    {
        //...
    }
}

It will take care of the synchronization context and property change notification for you.

回答8:

I think my example below may follow @Stephen-Cleary 's approach but I wanted to give a coded example. This is for use in a data binding context for example Xamarin.

The constructor of the class - or indeed the setter of another property on which it is dependent - may call an async void that will populate the property on completion of the task without the need for an await or block. When it finally gets a value it will update your UI via the NotifyPropertyChanged mechanism.

I'm not certain about any side effects of calling a aysnc void from a constructor. Perhaps a commenter will elaborate on error handling etc.

class MainPageViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    IEnumerable myList;

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    public MainPageViewModel()
    {

        MyAsyncMethod()

    }

    public IEnumerable MyList
    {
        set
        {
            if (myList != value)
            {
                myList = value;

                if (PropertyChanged != null)
                {
                    PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs("MyList"));
                }
            }
        }
        get
        {
            return myList;
        }
    }

    async void MyAsyncMethod()
    {
        MyList = await DoSomethingAsync();
    }


}

回答9:

You can change the proerty to Task<IEnumerable>

and do something like:

get
{
    Task<IEnumerable>.Run(async()=>{
       return await getMyList();
    });
}

and use it like await MyList;

来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6602244/how-to-call-an-async-method-from-a-getter-or-setter

标签

async-ctp