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Asynchronous Programming Patterns		03/30/2017	.net			dotnet-standard		article	asynchronous design patterns, .NET Framework .NET Framework, asynchronous design patterns	4ece5c0b-f8fe-4114-9862-ac02cfe5a5d7	5	rpetrusha	ronpet	wpickett

Asynchronous Programming Patterns

The .NET Framework provides three patterns for performing asynchronous operations:

• Asynchronous Programming Model (APM) pattern (also called the xref:System.IAsyncResult pattern), where asynchronous operations require Begin and End methods (for example, BeginWrite and EndWrite for asynchronous write operations). This pattern is no longer recommended for new development. For more information, see Asynchronous Programming Model (APM).

• Event-based Asynchronous Pattern (EAP), which requires a method that has the Async suffix, and also requires one or more events, event handler delegate types, and EventArg-derived types. EAP was introduced in the .NET Framework 2.0. It is no longer recommended for new development. For more information, see Event-based Asynchronous Pattern (EAP).

• Task-based Asynchronous Pattern (TAP), which uses a single method to represent the initiation and completion of an asynchronous operation. TAP was introduced in the .NET Framework 4 and is the recommended approach to asynchronous programming in the .NET Framework. The async and await keywords in C# and the Async and Await operators in Visual Basic Language add language support for TAP. For more information, see Task-based Asynchronous Pattern (TAP).

Comparing Patterns

For a quick comparison of how the three patterns model asynchronous operations, consider a Read method that reads a specified amount of data into a provided buffer starting at a specified offset:

public class MyClass  
{  
    public int Read(byte [] buffer, int offset, int count);  
}  

The APM counterpart of this method would expose the BeginRead and EndRead methods:

public class MyClass  
{  
    public IAsyncResult BeginRead(  
        byte [] buffer, int offset, int count,   
        AsyncCallback callback, object state);  
    public int EndRead(IAsyncResult asyncResult);  
}  

The EAP counterpart would expose the following set of types and members:

public class MyClass  
{  
    public void ReadAsync(byte [] buffer, int offset, int count);  
    public event ReadCompletedEventHandler ReadCompleted;  
}  

The TAP counterpart would expose the following single ReadAsync method:

public class MyClass  
{  
    public Task<int> ReadAsync(byte [] buffer, int offset, int count);  
}  

For a comprehensive discussion of TAP, APM, and EAP, see the links provided in the next section.

Related topics

Title	Description
Asynchronous Programming Model (APM)	Describes the legacy model that uses the xref:System.IAsyncResult interface to provide asynchronous behavior. This model is no longer recommended for new development.
Event-based Asynchronous Pattern (EAP)	Describes the event-based legacy model for providing asynchronous behavior. This model is no longer recommended for new development.
Task-based Asynchronous Pattern (TAP)	Describes the new asynchronous pattern based on the xref:System.Threading.Tasks namespace. This model is the recommended approach to asynchronous programming in the .NET Framework 4 and later versions.

See also

Asynchronous programming in C#
Async Programming in F#
Asynchronous Programming with Async and Await (Visual Basic)