[c#] Making interface implementations async

I’m currently trying to make my application using some Async methods. All my IO is done through explicit implementations of an interface and I am a bit confused about how to make the operations async.

As I see things I have two options in the implementation:

interface IIO
{
    void DoOperation();
}

OPTION1: Do an implicit implementation async and await the result in the implicit implementation.

class IOImplementation : IIO
{

     async void DoOperation()
    {
        await Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
            {
                //WRITING A FILE OR SOME SUCH THINGAMAGIG
            });
    }

    #region IIO Members

    void IIO.DoOperation()
    {
        DoOperation();
    }

    #endregion
}

OPTION2: Do the explicit implementation async and await the task from the implicit implementation.

class IOAsyncImplementation : IIO
{
    private Task DoOperationAsync()
    {
        return new Task(() =>
            {
                //DO ALL THE HEAVY LIFTING!!!
            });
    }

    #region IIOAsync Members

    async void IIO.DoOperation()
    {
        await DoOperationAsync();
    }

    #endregion
}

Are one of these implementations better than the other or is there another way to go that I am not thinking of?

This question is related to c# asynchronous async-await

The answer is


Better solution is to introduce another interface for async operations. New interface must inherit from original interface.

Example:

interface IIO
{
    void DoOperation();
}

interface IIOAsync : IIO
{
    Task DoOperationAsync();
}


class ClsAsync : IIOAsync
{
    public void DoOperation()
    {
        DoOperationAsync().GetAwaiter().GetResult();
    }

    public async Task DoOperationAsync()
    {
        //just an async code demo
        await Task.Delay(1000);
    }
}


class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        IIOAsync asAsync = new ClsAsync();
        IIO asSync = asAsync;

        Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.Second);

        asAsync.DoOperation();
        Console.WriteLine("After call to sync func using Async iface: {0}", 
            DateTime.Now.Second);

        asAsync.DoOperationAsync().GetAwaiter().GetResult();
        Console.WriteLine("After call to async func using Async iface: {0}", 
            DateTime.Now.Second);

        asSync.DoOperation();
        Console.WriteLine("After call to sync func using Sync iface: {0}", 
            DateTime.Now.Second);

        Console.ReadKey(true);
    }
}

P.S. Redesign your async operations so they return Task instead of void, unless you really must return void.


An abstract class can be used instead of an interface (in C# 7.3).

// Like interface
abstract class IIO
{
    public virtual async Task<string> DoOperation(string Name)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException(); // throwing exception
        // return await Task.Run(() => { return ""; }); // or empty do
    }
}

// Implementation
class IOImplementation : IIO
{
    public override async Task<string> DoOperation(string Name)
    {
        return await await Task.Run(() =>
        {
            if(Name == "Spiderman")
                return "ok";
            return "cancel";
        }); 
    }
}