Both Threads
and Task are used for Concurrent and Parallel programming.
Thread are
scheduled by the Operating system while the Task is scheduled by the TPL (Task
parallel Library).
Threads
offer low-level control but require manual management of synchronization while
Tasks provide a higher-level abstraction for asynchronous operations and
management are automatically.
Threads is synchronous programming while Task
is asynchronous programming using async and await keywords.
Threads is a
lightweight unit of execution that operates independently of other threads.
Threads require manual exception handling
(try-catch block) within the thread and no exception aggregation while Task
handle exceptions automatically to the calling code and aggregate multiple
exceptions if necessary, using AggregateException for multiple errors.
In general, Tasks provide a more modern,
structured way to handle errors, especially when dealing with parallelism or
asynchronous programming
While Thread's code must be inside a try-catch
block to handle exceptions and Unhandled exceptions in threads are not caught
by the parent thread by default.
//Example of Thread (a synchronous programing)
public class ThreadExample
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
//create a new thread and specify a method to execute.
Thread thread = new Thread(ExecuteNumber);
//thread execute
thread.Start();
//Main thread execute
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
Console.WriteLine("Main thread : " + i);
Thread.Sleep(500);
}
//wait for the thread to complete
thread.Join();
Console.WriteLine("Thread execution completed.");
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static void ExecuteNumber() {
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
Console.WriteLine("Second thread : "+ i);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
}
//Error-handling added
public class ThreadErrorHandling
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Create a new thread and specify a method to execute.
Thread thread = new Thread(ExecuteNumber);
// Thread execution wrapped in try-catch to handle any exceptions from the thread.
try
{
// Start the thread.
thread.Start();
// Main thread execution
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
try
{
Console.WriteLine("Main thread : " + i);
Thread.Sleep(500);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception in main thread: " + ex.Message);
}
}
// Wait for the secondary thread to complete.
thread.Join();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception occurred in the secondary thread: " + ex.Message);
}
Console.WriteLine("Thread execution completed.");
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static void ExecuteNumber()
{
try
{
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Second thread : " + i);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception in second thread: " + ex.Message);
}
}
}
//Example of Task (a asynchronous programing using async and await)
public class TaskExample
{
public static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
//Create a Task and execute a method - ExecuteNumber
Task task = ExecuteNumber();
//Continue a main thread
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
Console.WriteLine("Main Thread : " + i);
await Task.Delay(500);
}
await task;
Console.WriteLine("Task execution is completed.");
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static async Task ExecuteNumber()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Task : " + i);
//Delay 1 second
await Task.Delay(1000);
}
}
}
//Error - Handling
public class TaskErrorHandling
{
public static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
// Create a Task and execute a method - ExecuteNumber
Task task = ExecuteNumber();
// Continue the main thread execution
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
try
{
Console.WriteLine("Main Thread : " + i);
await Task.Delay(500);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception in Main Thread: " + ex.Message);
}
}
// Await the task to complete
await task;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception in Task: " + ex.Message);
}
Console.WriteLine("Task execution is completed.");
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static async Task ExecuteNumber()
{
try
{
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Task : " + i);
// Delay for 1 second
await Task.Delay(1000);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception in ExecuteNumber: " + ex.Message);
}
}
}