iyevhen / AsyncCollections

A .NET library that contains a set of lock-free thread-safe collections designed to be used asynchronously.

AsyncCollections

Have you ever dreamed about an asynchronous version of BlockingCollection that returns thread to the thread pool instead of blocking? If the answer is 'yes', you'll definitely find this library interesting.

Nuget package

https://www.nuget.org/packages/AsyncCollections/

AsyncQueue<T> and AsyncStack<T>

These classes provide simple asynchronous implementations of queue and stack respectively.

AsyncQueue<int> queue = new AsyncQueue<int>();
queue.Add( 42 );

CancellationTokenSource cancelSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
int item = await queue.TakeAsync( cancelSource.Token );

AsyncCollection<T>

AsyncCollection<T> is the base class for AsyncQueue<T> and AsyncStack<T> that also provides functions similar to ones of the BlockingCollection<T>. For instance:

AsyncQueue<int> queue1 = new AsyncQueue<int>();
AsyncQueue<int> queue2 = new AsyncQueue<int>();
AsyncQueue<int>[] _collections = new [] { queue1, queue2 };

//	will return asynchronously when one of the queues gets an item
AnyResult<int> result = await AsyncCollection<int>.TakeFromAnyAsync( _collections );

//  index of the collection that returned the item
int index = result.CollectionIndex;

//  the actual item that has been returned
int value = result.Value;

AsyncBoundedPriorityQueue<T>

This class represents a priority queue with a limited number of priority levels.

var queue = new AsyncBoundedPriorityQueue<int>( priorityLevels: 3 );

queue.Add( 1000 ); //  item is added at the lowest priority by default
queue.AddTopPriority( 42 );
queue.AddLowPriority( 999 );
queue.Add( 16, priority: 1 );

//  42 16 1000 999
while ( true )
{
  Debug.Write( await queue.TakeAsync() );
  Debug.Write( " " );
}

AsyncBatchQueue<T>

This class is a bit more complex. Just like AsyncQueue, it allows you to add items synchronously and retreive them asynchronously, but the difference is you consume them in batches of the specified size.

AsyncBatchQueue<int> queue = new AsyncBatchQueue<int>( batchSize: 3 );
queue.Add( 42 );
queue.Add( 64 );
queue.Add( 128 );

CancellationTokenSource cancelSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
//	this will asynchronously return a batch of 3 items
IReadOnlyList<int> batch = await queue.TakeAsync( cancelSource.Token );

There's a constructor overload that allows you to specify a time period to wait before the pending items are flushed and a batch is made available for consuming, even if the batch size is not reached yet.

AsyncBatchQueue<int> queue = new AsyncBatchQueue<int>( 9999, TimeSpan.FromSeconds( 5 ) );
queue.Add( 42 );

//	this will asynchronously return a batch of 1 item in 5 seconds
IReadOnlyList<int> batch = await queue.TakeAsync();