Asyncio.gather vs asyncio.wait
A very important distinction, which is easy to miss, is the default behavior of these two functions, when it comes to exceptions.
I'll use this example to simulate a coroutine that will raise exceptions, sometimes -
import asyncio
import random
async def a_flaky_tsk(i):
await asyncio.sleep(i) # bit of fuzz to simulate a real-world example
if i % 2 == 0:
print(i, "ok")
else:
print(i, "crashed!")
raise ValueError
coros = [a_flaky_tsk(i) for i in range(10)]
await asyncio.gather(*coros) outputs -
0 ok
1 crashed!
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py", line 20, in <module>
asyncio.run(main())
File "/Users/dev/.pyenv/versions/3.8.2/lib/python3.8/asyncio/runners.py", line 43, in run
return loop.run_until_complete(main)
File "/Users/dev/.pyenv/versions/3.8.2/lib/python3.8/asyncio/base_events.py", line 616, in run_until_complete
return future.result()
File "/Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py", line 17, in main
await asyncio.gather(*coros)
File "/Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py", line 12, in a_flaky_tsk
raise ValueError
ValueError
As you can see, the coros after index 1 never got to execute.
But await asyncio.wait(coros) continues to execute tasks, even if some of them fail -
0 ok
1 crashed!
2 ok
3 crashed!
4 ok
5 crashed!
6 ok
7 crashed!
8 ok
9 crashed!
Task exception was never retrieved
future: <Task finished name='Task-10' coro=<a_flaky_tsk() done, defined at /Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py:6> exception=ValueError()>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py", line 12, in a_flaky_tsk
raise ValueError
ValueError
Task exception was never retrieved
future: <Task finished name='Task-8' coro=<a_flaky_tsk() done, defined at /Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py:6> exception=ValueError()>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py", line 12, in a_flaky_tsk
raise ValueError
ValueError
Task exception was never retrieved
future: <Task finished name='Task-2' coro=<a_flaky_tsk() done, defined at /Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py:6> exception=ValueError()>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py", line 12, in a_flaky_tsk
raise ValueError
ValueError
Task exception was never retrieved
future: <Task finished name='Task-9' coro=<a_flaky_tsk() done, defined at /Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py:6> exception=ValueError()>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py", line 12, in a_flaky_tsk
raise ValueError
ValueError
Task exception was never retrieved
future: <Task finished name='Task-3' coro=<a_flaky_tsk() done, defined at /Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py:6> exception=ValueError()>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/dev/PycharmProjects/trading/xxx.py", line 12, in a_flaky_tsk
raise ValueError
ValueError
Of course, this behavior can be changed for both by using -
asyncio.gather(..., return_exceptions=True)
or,
asyncio.wait([...], return_when=asyncio.FIRST_EXCEPTION)
But it doesn't end here!
Notice:
Task exception was never retrieved
in the logs above.
asyncio.wait() won't re-raise exceptions from the child tasks until you await them individually. (The stacktrace in the logs are just messages, they cannot be caught!)
done, pending = await asyncio.wait(coros)
for tsk in done:
try:
await tsk
except Exception as e:
print("I caught:", repr(e))
Output -
0 ok
1 crashed!
2 ok
3 crashed!
4 ok
5 crashed!
6 ok
7 crashed!
8 ok
9 crashed!
I caught: ValueError()
I caught: ValueError()
I caught: ValueError()
I caught: ValueError()
I caught: ValueError()
On the other hand, to catch exceptions with asyncio.gather(), you must -
results = await asyncio.gather(*coros, return_exceptions=True)
for result_or_exc in results:
if isinstance(result_or_exc, Exception):
print("I caught:", repr(result_or_exc))
(Same output as before)
asyncio.wait is more low level than asyncio.gather.
As the name suggests, asyncio.gather mainly focuses on gathering the results. It waits on a bunch of futures and returns their results in a given order.
asyncio.wait just waits on the futures. And instead of giving you the results directly, it gives done and pending tasks. You have to manually collect the values.
Moreover, you could specify to wait for all futures to finish or just the first one with wait.
Although similar in general cases ("run and get results for many tasks"), each function has some specific functionality for other cases:
asyncio.gather()
Returns a Future instance, allowing high level grouping of tasks:
import asyncio
from pprint import pprint
import random
async def coro(tag):
print(">", tag)
await asyncio.sleep(random.uniform(1, 3))
print("<", tag)
return tag
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
group1 = asyncio.gather(*[coro("group 1.{}".format(i)) for i in range(1, 6)])
group2 = asyncio.gather(*[coro("group 2.{}".format(i)) for i in range(1, 4)])
group3 = asyncio.gather(*[coro("group 3.{}".format(i)) for i in range(1, 10)])
all_groups = asyncio.gather(group1, group2, group3)
results = loop.run_until_complete(all_groups)
loop.close()
pprint(results)
All tasks in a group can be cancelled by calling group2.cancel() or even all_groups.cancel(). See also .gather(..., return_exceptions=True),
asyncio.wait()
Supports waiting to be stopped after the first task is done, or after a specified timeout, allowing lower level precision of operations:
import asyncio
import random
async def coro(tag):
print(">", tag)
await asyncio.sleep(random.uniform(0.5, 5))
print("<", tag)
return tag
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
tasks = [coro(i) for i in range(1, 11)]
print("Get first result:")
finished, unfinished = loop.run_until_complete(
asyncio.wait(tasks, return_when=asyncio.FIRST_COMPLETED))
for task in finished:
print(task.result())
print("unfinished:", len(unfinished))
print("Get more results in 2 seconds:")
finished2, unfinished2 = loop.run_until_complete(
asyncio.wait(unfinished, timeout=2))
for task in finished2:
print(task.result())
print("unfinished2:", len(unfinished2))
print("Get all other results:")
finished3, unfinished3 = loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.wait(unfinished2))
for task in finished3:
print(task.result())
loop.close()