Asynchronous File I/O
Asynchronous operations enable you to perform resource-intensive I/O operations without blocking the main thread. This performance consideration is particularly important in a Windows 8.x Store app or desktop app where a time-consuming stream operation can block the UI thread and make your app appear as if it is not working.
Starting with .NET Framework 4.5, the I/O types include async methods to simplify asynchronous operations. An async method contains Async in its name, such as ReadAsync, WriteAsync, CopyToAsync, FlushAsync, ReadLineAsync, and ReadToEndAsync. These async methods are implemented on stream classes, such as Stream, FileStream, and MemoryStream, and on classes that are used for reading from or writing to streams, such TextReader and TextWriter.
In .NET Framework 4 and earlier versions, you have to use methods such as BeginRead and EndRead to implement asynchronous I/O operations. These methods are still available in current .NET versions to support legacy code; however, the async methods help you implement asynchronous I/O operations more easily.
C# and Visual Basic each have two keywords for asynchronous programming:
Async(Visual Basic) orasync(C#) modifier, which is used to mark a method that contains an asynchronous operation.Await(Visual Basic) orawait(C#) operator, which is applied to the result of an async method.
To implement asynchronous I/O operations, use these keywords in conjunction with the async methods, as shown in the following examples. For more information, see Asynchronous programming with async and await (C#) or Asynchronous Programming with Async and Await (Visual Basic).
The following example demonstrates how to use two FileStream objects to copy files asynchronously from one directory to another. Notice that the Click event handler for the Button control is marked with the async modifier because it calls an asynchronous method.
using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;
using System.IO;
namespace WpfApplication
{
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private async void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
string startDirectory = @"c:\Users\exampleuser\start";
string endDirectory = @"c:\Users\exampleuser\end";
foreach (string filename in Directory.EnumerateFiles(startDirectory))
{
using (FileStream sourceStream = File.Open(filename, FileMode.Open))
{
using (FileStream destinationStream = File.Create(Path.Combine(endDirectory, Path.GetFileName(filename))))
{
await sourceStream.CopyToAsync(destinationStream);
}
}
}
}
}
}
Imports System.IO
Class MainWindow
Private Async Sub Button_Click(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs)
Dim StartDirectory As String = "c:\Users\exampleuser\start"
Dim EndDirectory As String = "c:\Users\exampleuser\end"
For Each filename As String In Directory.EnumerateFiles(StartDirectory)
Using SourceStream As FileStream = File.Open(filename, FileMode.Open)
Using DestinationStream As FileStream = File.Create(EndDirectory + filename.Substring(filename.LastIndexOf("\"c)))
Await SourceStream.CopyToAsync(DestinationStream)
End Using
End Using
Next
End Sub
End Class
The next example is similar to the previous one but uses StreamReader and StreamWriter objects to read and write the contents of a text file asynchronously.
private async void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
string UserDirectory = @"c:\Users\exampleuser\";
using (StreamReader SourceReader = File.OpenText(UserDirectory + "BigFile.txt"))
{
using (StreamWriter DestinationWriter = File.CreateText(UserDirectory + "CopiedFile.txt"))
{
await CopyFilesAsync(SourceReader, DestinationWriter);
}
}
}
public async Task CopyFilesAsync(StreamReader Source, StreamWriter Destination)
{
char[] buffer = new char[0x1000];
int numRead;
while ((numRead = await Source.ReadAsync(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) != 0)
{
await Destination.WriteAsync(buffer, 0, numRead);
}
}
Private Async Sub Button_Click(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs)
Dim UserDirectory As String = "c:\Users\exampleuser\"
Using SourceReader As StreamReader = File.OpenText(UserDirectory + "BigFile.txt")
Using DestinationWriter As StreamWriter = File.CreateText(UserDirectory + "CopiedFile.txt")
Await CopyFilesAsync(SourceReader, DestinationWriter)
End Using
End Using
End Sub
Public Async Function CopyFilesAsync(Source As StreamReader, Destination As StreamWriter) As Task
Dim buffer(4095) As Char
Dim numRead As Integer
numRead = Await Source.ReadAsync(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)
Do While numRead <> 0
Await Destination.WriteAsync(buffer, 0, numRead)
numRead = Await Source.ReadAsync(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)
Loop
End Function
The next example shows the code-behind file and the XAML file that are used to open a file as a Stream in a Windows 8.x Store app, and read its contents by using an instance of the StreamReader class. It uses asynchronous methods to open the file as a stream and to read its contents.
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using Windows.Storage.Pickers;
using Windows.Storage;
using Windows.UI.Xaml;
using Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls;
namespace ExampleApplication
{
public sealed partial class BlankPage : Page
{
public BlankPage()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
}
private async void Button_Click_1(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
StringBuilder contents = new StringBuilder();
string nextLine;
int lineCounter = 1;
var openPicker = new FileOpenPicker();
openPicker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.DocumentsLibrary;
openPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".txt");
StorageFile selectedFile = await openPicker.PickSingleFileAsync();
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(await selectedFile.OpenStreamForReadAsync()))
{
while ((nextLine = await reader.ReadLineAsync()) != null)
{
contents.AppendFormat("{0}. ", lineCounter);
contents.Append(nextLine);
contents.AppendLine();
lineCounter++;
if (lineCounter > 3)
{
contents.AppendLine("Only first 3 lines shown.");
break;
}
}
}
DisplayContentsBlock.Text = contents.ToString();
}
}
}
Imports System.Text
Imports System.IO
Imports Windows.Storage.Pickers
Imports Windows.Storage
NotInheritable Public Class BlankPage
Inherits Page
Private Async Sub Button_Click_1(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs)
Dim contents As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder()
Dim nextLine As String
Dim lineCounter As Integer = 1
Dim openPicker = New FileOpenPicker()
openPicker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.DocumentsLibrary
openPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".txt")
Dim selectedFile As StorageFile = Await openPicker.PickSingleFileAsync()
Using reader As StreamReader = New StreamReader(Await selectedFile.OpenStreamForReadAsync())
nextLine = Await reader.ReadLineAsync()
While (nextLine <> Nothing)
contents.AppendFormat("{0}. ", lineCounter)
contents.Append(nextLine)
contents.AppendLine()
lineCounter = lineCounter + 1
If (lineCounter > 3) Then
contents.AppendLine("Only first 3 lines shown.")
Exit While
End If
nextLine = Await reader.ReadLineAsync()
End While
End Using
DisplayContentsBlock.Text = contents.ToString()
End Sub
End Class
<Page
x:Class="ExampleApplication.BlankPage"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="using:ExampleApplication"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d">
<StackPanel Background="{StaticResource ApplicationPageBackgroundBrush}" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center">
<TextBlock Text="Display lines from a file."></TextBlock>
<Button Content="Load File" Click="Button_Click_1"></Button>
<TextBlock Name="DisplayContentsBlock"></TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
</Page>
