Windows 8 Store App and Linq - c#

The snippet below is from a Windows 8 store app in c# and xaml.
I have put this code together from variou samples on the web so this may not be the neatest way of doing this. Most of it is from the Grid template supplied in VS2012 and I have hooked up my web api as the source of the data
Please explain the following
When i call the Get method all works fine and i get data back into the xaml view
When i uncomment the Take(10) in the same method i get no data back.
It seems any attempt to put an extension method of a LINQ variety just stops the data being returned and also gives no indication why, it complies fine!
Any help appreciated
Thanks
Mark
public class TeamDataSource
{
private static TeamDataSource _sampleDataSource = new TeamDataSource();
private ObservableCollection<TeamDataItem> _items = new ObservableCollection<TeamDataItem>();
public ObservableCollection<TeamDataItem> Items
{
get { return this._items; }
}
public TeamDataSource()
{
this.Initialize();
}
public static IEnumerable<TeamDataItem> Get()
{
var thisdata = _sampleDataSource.Items;
return thisdata;//.Take(10);
}
private async void Initialize()
{
using (var client = new DataServiceClient())
{
List<TeamDataItem> list = await client.Download<List<TeamDataItem>>("/teams");
foreach (var i in list.OrderByDescending(t => t.Points).ThenByDescending(t => t.GoalDiff))
{
TeamDataItem team = i;
_items.Add(team);
}
}
}
}

Your problem is that Take doesn't immediately enumerate the items. It defers enumeration until either foreach is called on it or GetEnumerator is called on it. In this case the collection it is enumerating is disposed (as soon as the Get content ends) and so when it finally enumerates the items, there are no items anymore. Try adding thisdata.GetEnumerator(); as a line before your return statement.
From here:
This method is implemented by using deferred execution. The immediate
return value is an object that stores all the information that is
required to perform the action. The query represented by this method
is not executed until the object is enumerated either by calling its
GetEnumerator method directly or by using foreach in Visual C# or For
Each in Visual Basic.

Seems it was quite obvious in the end. As I was using aync and await, the call was immediately returning before the data had arrived. Therefore nothing for the Take(4) to work on.
Only problem now is when can i tell the task has completed?

Related

Avoid collection was modified enumeration operation may not execute [duplicate]

I can't get to the bottom of this error, because when the debugger is attached, it does not seem to occur.
Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute
Below is the code.
This is a WCF server in a Windows service. The method NotifySubscribers() is called by the service whenever there is a data event (at random intervals, but not very often - about 800 times per day).
When a Windows Forms client subscribes, the subscriber ID is added to the subscribers dictionary, and when the client unsubscribes, it is deleted from the dictionary. The error happens when (or after) a client unsubscribes. It appears that the next time the NotifySubscribers() method is called, the foreach() loop fails with the error in the subject line. The method writes the error into the application log as shown in the code below. When a debugger is attached and a client unsubscribes, the code executes fine.
Do you see a problem with this code? Do I need to make the dictionary thread-safe?
[ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode=InstanceContextMode.Single)]
public class SubscriptionServer : ISubscriptionServer
{
private static IDictionary<Guid, Subscriber> subscribers;
public SubscriptionServer()
{
subscribers = new Dictionary<Guid, Subscriber>();
}
public void NotifySubscribers(DataRecord sr)
{
foreach(Subscriber s in subscribers.Values)
{
try
{
s.Callback.SignalData(sr);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
DCS.WriteToApplicationLog(e.Message,
System.Diagnostics.EventLogEntryType.Error);
UnsubscribeEvent(s.ClientId);
}
}
}
public Guid SubscribeEvent(string clientDescription)
{
Subscriber subscriber = new Subscriber();
subscriber.Callback = OperationContext.Current.
GetCallbackChannel<IDCSCallback>();
subscribers.Add(subscriber.ClientId, subscriber);
return subscriber.ClientId;
}
public void UnsubscribeEvent(Guid clientId)
{
try
{
subscribers.Remove(clientId);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Unsubscribe Error " +
e.Message);
}
}
}
What's likely happening is that SignalData is indirectly changing the subscribers dictionary under the hood during the loop and leading to that message. You can verify this by changing
foreach(Subscriber s in subscribers.Values)
To
foreach(Subscriber s in subscribers.Values.ToList())
If I'm right, the problem will disappear.
Calling subscribers.Values.ToList() copies the values of subscribers.Values to a separate list at the start of the foreach. Nothing else has access to this list (it doesn't even have a variable name!), so nothing can modify it inside the loop.
When a subscriber unsubscribes you are changing contents of the collection of Subscribers during enumeration.
There are several ways to fix this, one being changing the for loop to use an explicit .ToList():
public void NotifySubscribers(DataRecord sr)
{
foreach(Subscriber s in subscribers.Values.ToList())
{
^^^^^^^^^
...
A more efficient way, in my opinion, is to have another list that you declare that you put anything that is "to be removed" into. Then after you finish your main loop (without the .ToList()), you do another loop over the "to be removed" list, removing each entry as it happens. So in your class you add:
private List<Guid> toBeRemoved = new List<Guid>();
Then you change it to:
public void NotifySubscribers(DataRecord sr)
{
toBeRemoved.Clear();
...your unchanged code skipped...
foreach ( Guid clientId in toBeRemoved )
{
try
{
subscribers.Remove(clientId);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Unsubscribe Error " +
e.Message);
}
}
}
...your unchanged code skipped...
public void UnsubscribeEvent(Guid clientId)
{
toBeRemoved.Add( clientId );
}
This will not only solve your problem, it will prevent you from having to keep creating a list from your dictionary, which is expensive if there are a lot of subscribers in there. Assuming the list of subscribers to be removed on any given iteration is lower than the total number in the list, this should be faster. But of course feel free to profile it to be sure that's the case if there's any doubt in your specific usage situation.
Why this error?
In general .Net collections do not support being enumerated and modified at the same time. If you try to modify the collection list during enumeration, it raises an exception. So the issue behind this error is, we can not modify the list/dictionary while we are looping through the same.
One of the solutions
If we iterate a dictionary using a list of its keys, in parallel we can modify the dictionary object, as we are iterating through the key-collection and
not the dictionary(and iterating its key collection).
Example
//get key collection from dictionary into a list to loop through
List<int> keys = new List<int>(Dictionary.Keys);
// iterating key collection using a simple for-each loop
foreach (int key in keys)
{
// Now we can perform any modification with values of the dictionary.
Dictionary[key] = Dictionary[key] - 1;
}
Here is a blog post about this solution.
And for a deep dive in StackOverflow: Why this error occurs?
Okay so what helped me was iterating backwards. I was trying to remove an entry from a list but iterating upwards and it screwed up the loop because the entry didn't exist anymore:
for (int x = myList.Count - 1; x > -1; x--)
{
myList.RemoveAt(x);
}
The accepted answer is imprecise and incorrect in the worst case . If changes are made during ToList(), you can still end up with an error. Besides lock, which performance and thread-safety needs to be taken into consideration if you have a public member, a proper solution can be using immutable types.
In general, an immutable type means that you can't change the state of it once created.
So your code should look like:
public class SubscriptionServer : ISubscriptionServer
{
private static ImmutableDictionary<Guid, Subscriber> subscribers = ImmutableDictionary<Guid, Subscriber>.Empty;
public void SubscribeEvent(string id)
{
subscribers = subscribers.Add(Guid.NewGuid(), new Subscriber());
}
public void NotifyEvent()
{
foreach(var sub in subscribers.Values)
{
//.....This is always safe
}
}
//.........
}
This can be especially useful if you have a public member. Other classes can always foreach on the immutable types without worrying about the collection being modified.
I want to point out other case not reflected in any of the answers. I have a Dictionary<Tkey,TValue> shared in a multi threaded app, which uses a ReaderWriterLockSlim to protect the read and write operations. This is a reading method that throws the exception:
public IEnumerable<Data> GetInfo()
{
List<Data> info = null;
_cacheLock.EnterReadLock();
try
{
info = _cache.Values.SelectMany(ce => ce.Data); // Ad .Tolist() to avoid exc.
}
finally
{
_cacheLock.ExitReadLock();
}
return info;
}
In general, it works fine, but from time to time I get the exception. The problem is a subtlety of LINQ: this code returns an IEnumerable<Info>, which is still not enumerated after leaving the section protected by the lock. So, it can be changed by other threads before being enumerated, leading to the exception. The solution is to force the enumeration, for example with .ToList() as shown in the comment. In this way, the enumerable is already enumerated before leaving the protected section.
So, if using LINQ in a multi-threaded application, be aware to always materialize the queries before leaving the protected regions.
InvalidOperationException-
An InvalidOperationException has occurred. It reports a "collection was modified" in a foreach-loop
Use break statement, Once the object is removed.
ex:
ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
foreach (var item in list)
{
if(condition)
{
list.remove(item);
break;
}
}
Actually the problem seems to me that you are removing elements from the list and expecting to continue to read the list as if nothing had happened.
What you really need to do is to start from the end and back to the begining. Even if you remove elements from the list you will be able to continue reading it.
I had the same issue, and it was solved when I used a for loop instead of foreach.
// foreach (var item in itemsToBeLast)
for (int i = 0; i < itemsToBeLast.Count; i++)
{
var matchingItem = itemsToBeLast.FirstOrDefault(item => item.Detach);
if (matchingItem != null)
{
itemsToBeLast.Remove(matchingItem);
continue;
}
allItems.Add(itemsToBeLast[i]);// (attachDetachItem);
}
I've seen many options for this but to me this one was the best.
ListItemCollection collection = new ListItemCollection();
foreach (ListItem item in ListBox1.Items)
{
if (item.Selected)
collection.Add(item);
}
Then simply loop through the collection.
Be aware that a ListItemCollection can contain duplicates. By default there is nothing preventing duplicates being added to the collection. To avoid duplicates you can do this:
ListItemCollection collection = new ListItemCollection();
foreach (ListItem item in ListBox1.Items)
{
if (item.Selected && !collection.Contains(item))
collection.Add(item);
}
This way should cover a situation of concurrency when the function is called again while is still executing (and items need used only once):
while (list.Count > 0)
{
string Item = list[0];
list.RemoveAt(0);
// do here what you need to do with item
}
If the function get called while is still executing items will not reiterate from the first again as they get deleted as soon as they get used.
Should not affect performance much for small lists.
There is one link where it elaborated very well & solution is also given.
Try it if you got proper solution please post here so other can understand.
Given solution is ok then like the post so other can try these solution.
for you reference original link :-
https://bensonxion.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/serializing-an-ienumerable-produces-collection-was-modified-enumeration-operation-may-not-execute/
When we use .Net Serialization classes to serialize an object where its definition contains an Enumerable type, i.e.
collection, you will be easily getting InvalidOperationException saying "Collection was modified;
enumeration operation may not execute" where your coding is under multi-thread scenarios.
The bottom cause is that serialization classes will iterate through collection via enumerator, as such,
problem goes to trying to iterate through a collection while modifying it.
First solution, we can simply use lock as a synchronization solution to ensure that
the operation to the List object can only be executed from one thread at a time.
Obviously, you will get performance penalty that
if you want to serialize a collection of that object, then for each of them, the lock will be applied.
Well, .Net 4.0 which makes dealing with multi-threading scenarios handy.
for this serializing Collection field problem, I found we can just take benefit from ConcurrentQueue(Check MSDN)class,
which is a thread-safe and FIFO collection and makes code lock-free.
Using this class, in its simplicity, the stuff you need to modify for your code are replacing Collection type with it,
use Enqueue to add an element to the end of ConcurrentQueue, remove those lock code.
Or, if the scenario you are working on do require collection stuff like List, you will need a few more code to adapt ConcurrentQueue into your fields.
BTW, ConcurrentQueue doesnât have a Clear method due to underlying algorithm which doesnât permit atomically clearing of the collection.
so you have to do it yourself, the fastest way is to re-create a new empty ConcurrentQueue for a replacement.
Here is a specific scenario that warrants a specialized approach:
The Dictionary is enumerated frequently.
The Dictionary is modified infrequently.
In this scenario creating a copy of the Dictionary (or the Dictionary.Values) before every enumeration can be quite costly. My idea about solving this problem is to reuse the same cached copy in multiple enumerations, and watch an IEnumerator of the original Dictionary for exceptions. The enumerator will be cached along with the copied data, and interrogated before starting a new enumeration. In case of an exception the cached copy will be discarded, and a new one will be created. Here is my implementation of this idea:
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Linq;
public class EnumerableSnapshot<T> : IEnumerable<T>, IDisposable
{
private IEnumerable<T> _source;
private IEnumerator<T> _enumerator;
private ReadOnlyCollection<T> _cached;
public EnumerableSnapshot(IEnumerable<T> source)
{
_source = source ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(source));
}
public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
{
if (_source == null) throw new ObjectDisposedException(this.GetType().Name);
if (_enumerator == null)
{
_enumerator = _source.GetEnumerator();
_cached = new ReadOnlyCollection<T>(_source.ToArray());
}
else
{
var modified = false;
if (_source is ICollection collection) // C# 7 syntax
{
modified = _cached.Count != collection.Count;
}
if (!modified)
{
try
{
_enumerator.MoveNext();
}
catch (InvalidOperationException)
{
modified = true;
}
}
if (modified)
{
_enumerator.Dispose();
_enumerator = _source.GetEnumerator();
_cached = new ReadOnlyCollection<T>(_source.ToArray());
}
}
return _cached.GetEnumerator();
}
public void Dispose()
{
_enumerator?.Dispose();
_enumerator = null;
_cached = null;
_source = null;
}
IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() => GetEnumerator();
}
public static class EnumerableSnapshotExtensions
{
public static EnumerableSnapshot<T> ToEnumerableSnapshot<T>(
this IEnumerable<T> source) => new EnumerableSnapshot<T>(source);
}
Usage example:
private static IDictionary<Guid, Subscriber> _subscribers;
private static EnumerableSnapshot<Subscriber> _subscribersSnapshot;
//...(in the constructor)
_subscribers = new Dictionary<Guid, Subscriber>();
_subscribersSnapshot = _subscribers.Values.ToEnumerableSnapshot();
// ...(elsewere)
foreach (var subscriber in _subscribersSnapshot)
{
//...
}
Unfortunately this idea cannot be used currently with the class Dictionary in .NET Core 3.0, because this class does not throw a Collection was modified exception when enumerated and the methods Remove and Clear are invoked. All other containers I checked are behaving consistently. I checked systematically these classes:
List<T>, Collection<T>, ObservableCollection<T>, HashSet<T>, SortedSet<T>, Dictionary<T,V> and SortedDictionary<T,V>. Only the two aforementioned methods of the Dictionary class in .NET Core are not invalidating the enumeration.
Update: I fixed the above problem by comparing also the lengths of the cached and the original collection. This fix assumes that the dictionary will be passed directly as an argument to the EnumerableSnapshot's constructor, and its identity will not be hidden by (for example) a projection like: dictionary.Select(e => e).ΤοEnumerableSnapshot().
Important: The above class is not thread safe. It is intended to be used from code running exclusively in a single thread.
You can copy subscribers dictionary object to a same type of temporary dictionary object and then iterate the temporary dictionary object using foreach loop.
So a different way to solve this problem would be instead of removing the elements create a new dictionary and only add the elements you didnt want to remove then replace the original dictionary with the new one. I don't think this is too much of an efficiency problem because it does not increase the number of times you iterate over the structure.

checking list of monsters error Unity [duplicate]

I can't get to the bottom of this error, because when the debugger is attached, it does not seem to occur.
Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute
Below is the code.
This is a WCF server in a Windows service. The method NotifySubscribers() is called by the service whenever there is a data event (at random intervals, but not very often - about 800 times per day).
When a Windows Forms client subscribes, the subscriber ID is added to the subscribers dictionary, and when the client unsubscribes, it is deleted from the dictionary. The error happens when (or after) a client unsubscribes. It appears that the next time the NotifySubscribers() method is called, the foreach() loop fails with the error in the subject line. The method writes the error into the application log as shown in the code below. When a debugger is attached and a client unsubscribes, the code executes fine.
Do you see a problem with this code? Do I need to make the dictionary thread-safe?
[ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode=InstanceContextMode.Single)]
public class SubscriptionServer : ISubscriptionServer
{
private static IDictionary<Guid, Subscriber> subscribers;
public SubscriptionServer()
{
subscribers = new Dictionary<Guid, Subscriber>();
}
public void NotifySubscribers(DataRecord sr)
{
foreach(Subscriber s in subscribers.Values)
{
try
{
s.Callback.SignalData(sr);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
DCS.WriteToApplicationLog(e.Message,
System.Diagnostics.EventLogEntryType.Error);
UnsubscribeEvent(s.ClientId);
}
}
}
public Guid SubscribeEvent(string clientDescription)
{
Subscriber subscriber = new Subscriber();
subscriber.Callback = OperationContext.Current.
GetCallbackChannel<IDCSCallback>();
subscribers.Add(subscriber.ClientId, subscriber);
return subscriber.ClientId;
}
public void UnsubscribeEvent(Guid clientId)
{
try
{
subscribers.Remove(clientId);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Unsubscribe Error " +
e.Message);
}
}
}
What's likely happening is that SignalData is indirectly changing the subscribers dictionary under the hood during the loop and leading to that message. You can verify this by changing
foreach(Subscriber s in subscribers.Values)
To
foreach(Subscriber s in subscribers.Values.ToList())
If I'm right, the problem will disappear.
Calling subscribers.Values.ToList() copies the values of subscribers.Values to a separate list at the start of the foreach. Nothing else has access to this list (it doesn't even have a variable name!), so nothing can modify it inside the loop.
When a subscriber unsubscribes you are changing contents of the collection of Subscribers during enumeration.
There are several ways to fix this, one being changing the for loop to use an explicit .ToList():
public void NotifySubscribers(DataRecord sr)
{
foreach(Subscriber s in subscribers.Values.ToList())
{
^^^^^^^^^
...
A more efficient way, in my opinion, is to have another list that you declare that you put anything that is "to be removed" into. Then after you finish your main loop (without the .ToList()), you do another loop over the "to be removed" list, removing each entry as it happens. So in your class you add:
private List<Guid> toBeRemoved = new List<Guid>();
Then you change it to:
public void NotifySubscribers(DataRecord sr)
{
toBeRemoved.Clear();
...your unchanged code skipped...
foreach ( Guid clientId in toBeRemoved )
{
try
{
subscribers.Remove(clientId);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Unsubscribe Error " +
e.Message);
}
}
}
...your unchanged code skipped...
public void UnsubscribeEvent(Guid clientId)
{
toBeRemoved.Add( clientId );
}
This will not only solve your problem, it will prevent you from having to keep creating a list from your dictionary, which is expensive if there are a lot of subscribers in there. Assuming the list of subscribers to be removed on any given iteration is lower than the total number in the list, this should be faster. But of course feel free to profile it to be sure that's the case if there's any doubt in your specific usage situation.
Why this error?
In general .Net collections do not support being enumerated and modified at the same time. If you try to modify the collection list during enumeration, it raises an exception. So the issue behind this error is, we can not modify the list/dictionary while we are looping through the same.
One of the solutions
If we iterate a dictionary using a list of its keys, in parallel we can modify the dictionary object, as we are iterating through the key-collection and
not the dictionary(and iterating its key collection).
Example
//get key collection from dictionary into a list to loop through
List<int> keys = new List<int>(Dictionary.Keys);
// iterating key collection using a simple for-each loop
foreach (int key in keys)
{
// Now we can perform any modification with values of the dictionary.
Dictionary[key] = Dictionary[key] - 1;
}
Here is a blog post about this solution.
And for a deep dive in StackOverflow: Why this error occurs?
Okay so what helped me was iterating backwards. I was trying to remove an entry from a list but iterating upwards and it screwed up the loop because the entry didn't exist anymore:
for (int x = myList.Count - 1; x > -1; x--)
{
myList.RemoveAt(x);
}
The accepted answer is imprecise and incorrect in the worst case . If changes are made during ToList(), you can still end up with an error. Besides lock, which performance and thread-safety needs to be taken into consideration if you have a public member, a proper solution can be using immutable types.
In general, an immutable type means that you can't change the state of it once created.
So your code should look like:
public class SubscriptionServer : ISubscriptionServer
{
private static ImmutableDictionary<Guid, Subscriber> subscribers = ImmutableDictionary<Guid, Subscriber>.Empty;
public void SubscribeEvent(string id)
{
subscribers = subscribers.Add(Guid.NewGuid(), new Subscriber());
}
public void NotifyEvent()
{
foreach(var sub in subscribers.Values)
{
//.....This is always safe
}
}
//.........
}
This can be especially useful if you have a public member. Other classes can always foreach on the immutable types without worrying about the collection being modified.
I want to point out other case not reflected in any of the answers. I have a Dictionary<Tkey,TValue> shared in a multi threaded app, which uses a ReaderWriterLockSlim to protect the read and write operations. This is a reading method that throws the exception:
public IEnumerable<Data> GetInfo()
{
List<Data> info = null;
_cacheLock.EnterReadLock();
try
{
info = _cache.Values.SelectMany(ce => ce.Data); // Ad .Tolist() to avoid exc.
}
finally
{
_cacheLock.ExitReadLock();
}
return info;
}
In general, it works fine, but from time to time I get the exception. The problem is a subtlety of LINQ: this code returns an IEnumerable<Info>, which is still not enumerated after leaving the section protected by the lock. So, it can be changed by other threads before being enumerated, leading to the exception. The solution is to force the enumeration, for example with .ToList() as shown in the comment. In this way, the enumerable is already enumerated before leaving the protected section.
So, if using LINQ in a multi-threaded application, be aware to always materialize the queries before leaving the protected regions.
InvalidOperationException-
An InvalidOperationException has occurred. It reports a "collection was modified" in a foreach-loop
Use break statement, Once the object is removed.
ex:
ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
foreach (var item in list)
{
if(condition)
{
list.remove(item);
break;
}
}
Actually the problem seems to me that you are removing elements from the list and expecting to continue to read the list as if nothing had happened.
What you really need to do is to start from the end and back to the begining. Even if you remove elements from the list you will be able to continue reading it.
I had the same issue, and it was solved when I used a for loop instead of foreach.
// foreach (var item in itemsToBeLast)
for (int i = 0; i < itemsToBeLast.Count; i++)
{
var matchingItem = itemsToBeLast.FirstOrDefault(item => item.Detach);
if (matchingItem != null)
{
itemsToBeLast.Remove(matchingItem);
continue;
}
allItems.Add(itemsToBeLast[i]);// (attachDetachItem);
}
I've seen many options for this but to me this one was the best.
ListItemCollection collection = new ListItemCollection();
foreach (ListItem item in ListBox1.Items)
{
if (item.Selected)
collection.Add(item);
}
Then simply loop through the collection.
Be aware that a ListItemCollection can contain duplicates. By default there is nothing preventing duplicates being added to the collection. To avoid duplicates you can do this:
ListItemCollection collection = new ListItemCollection();
foreach (ListItem item in ListBox1.Items)
{
if (item.Selected && !collection.Contains(item))
collection.Add(item);
}
This way should cover a situation of concurrency when the function is called again while is still executing (and items need used only once):
while (list.Count > 0)
{
string Item = list[0];
list.RemoveAt(0);
// do here what you need to do with item
}
If the function get called while is still executing items will not reiterate from the first again as they get deleted as soon as they get used.
Should not affect performance much for small lists.
There is one link where it elaborated very well & solution is also given.
Try it if you got proper solution please post here so other can understand.
Given solution is ok then like the post so other can try these solution.
for you reference original link :-
https://bensonxion.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/serializing-an-ienumerable-produces-collection-was-modified-enumeration-operation-may-not-execute/
When we use .Net Serialization classes to serialize an object where its definition contains an Enumerable type, i.e.
collection, you will be easily getting InvalidOperationException saying "Collection was modified;
enumeration operation may not execute" where your coding is under multi-thread scenarios.
The bottom cause is that serialization classes will iterate through collection via enumerator, as such,
problem goes to trying to iterate through a collection while modifying it.
First solution, we can simply use lock as a synchronization solution to ensure that
the operation to the List object can only be executed from one thread at a time.
Obviously, you will get performance penalty that
if you want to serialize a collection of that object, then for each of them, the lock will be applied.
Well, .Net 4.0 which makes dealing with multi-threading scenarios handy.
for this serializing Collection field problem, I found we can just take benefit from ConcurrentQueue(Check MSDN)class,
which is a thread-safe and FIFO collection and makes code lock-free.
Using this class, in its simplicity, the stuff you need to modify for your code are replacing Collection type with it,
use Enqueue to add an element to the end of ConcurrentQueue, remove those lock code.
Or, if the scenario you are working on do require collection stuff like List, you will need a few more code to adapt ConcurrentQueue into your fields.
BTW, ConcurrentQueue doesnât have a Clear method due to underlying algorithm which doesnât permit atomically clearing of the collection.
so you have to do it yourself, the fastest way is to re-create a new empty ConcurrentQueue for a replacement.
Here is a specific scenario that warrants a specialized approach:
The Dictionary is enumerated frequently.
The Dictionary is modified infrequently.
In this scenario creating a copy of the Dictionary (or the Dictionary.Values) before every enumeration can be quite costly. My idea about solving this problem is to reuse the same cached copy in multiple enumerations, and watch an IEnumerator of the original Dictionary for exceptions. The enumerator will be cached along with the copied data, and interrogated before starting a new enumeration. In case of an exception the cached copy will be discarded, and a new one will be created. Here is my implementation of this idea:
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Linq;
public class EnumerableSnapshot<T> : IEnumerable<T>, IDisposable
{
private IEnumerable<T> _source;
private IEnumerator<T> _enumerator;
private ReadOnlyCollection<T> _cached;
public EnumerableSnapshot(IEnumerable<T> source)
{
_source = source ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(source));
}
public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
{
if (_source == null) throw new ObjectDisposedException(this.GetType().Name);
if (_enumerator == null)
{
_enumerator = _source.GetEnumerator();
_cached = new ReadOnlyCollection<T>(_source.ToArray());
}
else
{
var modified = false;
if (_source is ICollection collection) // C# 7 syntax
{
modified = _cached.Count != collection.Count;
}
if (!modified)
{
try
{
_enumerator.MoveNext();
}
catch (InvalidOperationException)
{
modified = true;
}
}
if (modified)
{
_enumerator.Dispose();
_enumerator = _source.GetEnumerator();
_cached = new ReadOnlyCollection<T>(_source.ToArray());
}
}
return _cached.GetEnumerator();
}
public void Dispose()
{
_enumerator?.Dispose();
_enumerator = null;
_cached = null;
_source = null;
}
IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() => GetEnumerator();
}
public static class EnumerableSnapshotExtensions
{
public static EnumerableSnapshot<T> ToEnumerableSnapshot<T>(
this IEnumerable<T> source) => new EnumerableSnapshot<T>(source);
}
Usage example:
private static IDictionary<Guid, Subscriber> _subscribers;
private static EnumerableSnapshot<Subscriber> _subscribersSnapshot;
//...(in the constructor)
_subscribers = new Dictionary<Guid, Subscriber>();
_subscribersSnapshot = _subscribers.Values.ToEnumerableSnapshot();
// ...(elsewere)
foreach (var subscriber in _subscribersSnapshot)
{
//...
}
Unfortunately this idea cannot be used currently with the class Dictionary in .NET Core 3.0, because this class does not throw a Collection was modified exception when enumerated and the methods Remove and Clear are invoked. All other containers I checked are behaving consistently. I checked systematically these classes:
List<T>, Collection<T>, ObservableCollection<T>, HashSet<T>, SortedSet<T>, Dictionary<T,V> and SortedDictionary<T,V>. Only the two aforementioned methods of the Dictionary class in .NET Core are not invalidating the enumeration.
Update: I fixed the above problem by comparing also the lengths of the cached and the original collection. This fix assumes that the dictionary will be passed directly as an argument to the EnumerableSnapshot's constructor, and its identity will not be hidden by (for example) a projection like: dictionary.Select(e => e).ΤοEnumerableSnapshot().
Important: The above class is not thread safe. It is intended to be used from code running exclusively in a single thread.
You can copy subscribers dictionary object to a same type of temporary dictionary object and then iterate the temporary dictionary object using foreach loop.
So a different way to solve this problem would be instead of removing the elements create a new dictionary and only add the elements you didnt want to remove then replace the original dictionary with the new one. I don't think this is too much of an efficiency problem because it does not increase the number of times you iterate over the structure.

Nopcommerce Update entity issue

Using NopCommerce 3.8, Visual Studio 2015 proff.
I have created a plugin that is responsible for making restful calls to my Web API that exposes a different DB to that of Nop.
The process is run via a nop Task, it successfully pulls the data back and i can step through and manipulate as i see fit, no issues so far.
Issue comes when i try to update a record on the product table, i perform the update... but nothing happens no change, no error.
I believe this is due to the Context having no idea about my newly instantiated product object, however I'm drawing a blank on what i need to do in relation to my particular example.
Similar questions usually reference a "model" object that is part of the parameter of the method call, "model" has the method ToEntity which seems to be the answer in similar question in stack.
However my example doesn't have the ToEntity class/method possibly because my parameter is actually a list of products. To Clarify here my code.
Method in RestClient.cs
public async Task<List<T>> GetAsync()
{
try
{
var httpClient = new HttpClient();
var json = await httpClient.GetStringAsync(ApiControllerURL);
var taskModels = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<T>>(json);
return taskModels;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
return null;
}
}
Method in my Service Class
public async Task<List<MWProduct>> GetProductsAsync()
{
RestClient<MWProduct> restClient = new RestClient<MWProduct>(ApiConst.Products);
var productsList = await restClient.GetAsync();
InsertSyncProd(productsList.Select(x => x).ToList());
return productsList;
}
private void InsertSyncProd(List<MWProduct> inserted)
{
var model = inserted.Select(x =>
{
switch (x.AD_Action)
{
case "I":
//_productService.InsertProduct(row);
break;
case "U":
UpdateSyncProd(inserted);
.....
Then the method to bind and update
private void UpdateSyncProd(List<MWProduct> inserted)
{
var me = inserted.Select(x =>
{
var productEnt = _productRepos.Table.FirstOrDefault(ent => ent.Sku == x.Sku.ToString());
if(productEnt != null)
{
productEnt.Sku = x.Sku.ToString();
productEnt.ShortDescription = x.ShortDescription;
productEnt.FullDescription = x.FullDescription;
productEnt.Name = x.Name;
productEnt.Height = x.Pd_height != null ? Convert.ToDecimal(x.Pd_height) : 0;
productEnt.Width = x.Pd_width != null ? Convert.ToDecimal(x.Pd_width) : 0;
productEnt.Length = x.Pd_depth != null ? Convert.ToDecimal(x.Pd_depth) : 0;
productEnt.UpdatedOnUtc = DateTime.UtcNow;
}
//TODO: set to entity so context nows and can update
_productService.UpdateProduct(productEnt);
return productEnt;
});
}
So as you can see, I get the data and pass data through to certain method based on a result. From that list in the method I iterate over, and pull the the entity from the table, then update via the product service using that manipulated entity.
So what am I missing here, I'm sure its 1 step, and i think it may be either be because 1) The context still has no idea about the entity in question, or 2) Its Incorrect calls.
Summary
Update is not updating, possibly due to context having no knowledge OR my methodology is wrong. (probably both).
UPDATE:
I added some logger.inertlog all around my service, it runs through fine, all to the point of the call of update. But again I check the product and nothing has changed in the admin section.
plugin
I have provided the full source as i think maybe this has something to do with the rest of the code setup possibly?
UPDATE:
Added the following for testin on my execute method.
var myprod = _productRepos.GetById(4852);
myprod.ShortDescription = "db test";
productRepos.Update(myprod);
This successfully updates the product description. I moved my methods from my service into the task class but still no luck. The more i look at it the more im thinking that my async is killing off the db context somehow.
Turned of async and bound the getbyid to a new product, also removed the lambda for the switch and changed it to a foreach loop. Seems to finally update the results.
Cannot confirm if async is the culprit, currently the web api seems to be returning the same result even though the data has changed (some wierd caching by deafult in .net core? ) so im creating a new question for that.
UPDATE: It appears that the issue stems from poor debugging of async. Each instance I am trying to iterate over an await call, simply put im trying to iterate over a collection that technically may or may not be completed yet. And probably due to poor debugging, I was not aware.
So answer await your collection Then iterate after.

Linq Query toList() is empty but foreach works

I have the following Linq query:
IEnumerable<Network> net = from file in Directory.GetFiles(folder+ #"\network")
from lines in File.ReadLines(file).Skip(1)
let row = lines.Split(',')
select new Network
{
networkname = getnetwork(row),
...
networkdate = getnetworkdate(row)
};
when I use toList() on it, the list is empty but when I use a foreach loop where I use an empty List and add each item, it is not. Did I made a mistake in this query or could there be different source for this strange behavior?
UPDATE:
I am using it in a extension method like this:
This does not work:
public static void FillFromCsv(this List<Network> network)
{
[QUERY HERE]
network = net.toList();
}
This works:
public static void FillFromCsv(this List<Network> network)
{
[QUERY HERE]
network.Clear();
Foreach (Network n in net)
{
network.add(n);
}
}
Your problem has nothing to do with foreach vs ToList. The problem is that in the first method, you are not changing the list that's passed in. You're overwriting the local reference with a new reference:
public static void FillFromCsv(this List<Network> network)
{
[QUERY HERE]
// this only affects the _local_ "network" reference, not the reference passed in
network = net.toList();
}
You could change the parameter to a ref parameter, but why use an extension method at all? Why have the caller pass in a list if you're just going to blow it away? I would just do
public static IEnumerable<Network> FillFromCsv()
{
[QUERY HERE]
return net.ToList();
}
In the second method, you're clearing the list instance that's passed in and adding the results to it. Which is fine, but it's different that what you're doing in the first method.
You could avoid the foreach by just doing:
public static void FillFromCsv(this List<Network> network)
{
[QUERY HERE]
network.Clear();
network.AddRange(net);
}
But it seems odd to have the caller pass you a list and you clear it out and refill it. A better method would be to just return a list (like the fist suggestion).

Returning IQueryable from within a using block. Need better design

I have created a PhoneBook style application; on my phonebook object I have a local member _site which is used as a filter, since there are approximately 1000 phone numbers, split across 12 sites within my organisation. Only one site will be retrieved at a time using this method.
This was my original method. The GUI has several methods for reordering the data, so I left it as an IQueryable because I would like to defer SQL to allow for filtering to be done on the SQL server rather than on the client PC.
Works
public IQueryable<PhoneNumber> GetPhoneDirectory()
{
PhoneBookDataContext db = new PhoneBookDataContext())
return db.PhoneNumbers.Where(d => d.Site == _site);
}
However, I am also trying to keep to 'best practise' in terms of using statements.
Doesn't Work
public IQueryable<PhoneNumber> GetPhoneDirectory()
{
using (PhoneBookDataContext db = new PhoneBookDataContext())
{
return db.PhoneNumbers.Where(d => d.Site == _site);
}
}
Now as pointed out by #justanotheruseryoumay, this will cause an exception because the datacontext is disposed by the time the objects are accessed.
I guess what I am asking is, how can I make sure my data context is disposed nicely, when I cannot use a 'using' statement and don't strictly know when the context is done with.
If you want to return IQueryable you can make your class that contains the GetPhoneDirectory disposable, make the PhoneBookDataContext a field, and dispose it in your dispose method.
You will then put the onus on the caller to dispose his instance of your class.
E.g.
public class MyClass : IDisposable
{
PhoneBookDataContext db;
public MyClass()
{
db = new PhoneBookDataContext();
}
public IQueryable<PhoneNumber> GetPhoneDirectory()
{
return db.PhoneNumbers.Where(d => d.Site == _site);
}
public void Dispose()
{
if (db != null)
{
db.Dispose();
db = null;
}
}
}
// Caller
using(var myClass = new MyClass())
{
var queryable = myClass.GetPhoneDirectory();
...
}
The execution of the query will still be deferred and the PhoneBookDataContext will still be properly Disposed because using is interpreted by the compile as a try/finally. When you actually execute the query it will result in a runtime error because the PhoneBookDataContext no longer exists. I would suggest doing a .ToList() on your query and returning it that way. If you want to change the order after you return it then you can still do LINQ on it as you please.
EDIT:
Another thing you could do is to create the using with the PhoneBookDataContext in the calling method and pass in the context. The context is really going to be used in that method anyway and you can keep it around as long as you need it and stick with the good using format.
Yes; It is bad design because your IQueryable<PhoneNumber> will be evaluated only when you call a method that cause it to be evaluated, like ToList() or when you iterate it with foreach.
in your code you are returning a IQueryable<PhoneNumber> which is not evaluated yet, and before the caller get any chance to execute it, it's internals that has the responsibility for yielding the records to you (db); is already disposed.
Just as a suggestion:
public IEnumerable<PhoneNumber> GetPhoneDirectory()
{
using (PhoneBookDataContext db = new PhoneBookDataContext())
{
return db.PhoneNumbers.Where(d => d.Site == _site).ToList();
}
}
Or relocate the db object to somewhere else in your design (Unit Of Work and Repository are nice patterns to get a look at IMHO).

Categories