Promise equivalent in C#

In C#:

  • Task<T> is a future (or Task for a unit-returning future).
  • TaskCompletionSource<T> is a promise.

So your code would translate as such:

// var promise = new Promise<MyResult>;
var promise = new TaskCompletionSource<MyResult>();

// handlerMyEventsWithHandler(msg => promise.Complete(msg););
handlerMyEventsWithHandler(msg => promise.TrySetResult(msg));

// var myResult = promise.Future.Await(2000);
var completed = await Task.WhenAny(promise.Task, Task.Delay(2000));
if (completed == promise.Task)
  ; // Do something on timeout
var myResult = await completed;

Assert.Equals("my header", myResult.Header);

The "timed asynchronous wait" is a bit awkward, but it's also relatively uncommon in real-world code. For unit tests, I would just do a regular asynchronous wait:

var promise = new TaskCompletionSource<MyResult>();

handlerMyEventsWithHandler(msg => promise.TrySetResult(msg));

var myResult = await promise.Task;

Assert.Equals("my header", myResult.Header);

The rough C# equivalent without third-party libraries would be:

// var MyResult has a field `Header`
var promise = new TaskCompletionSource<MyResult>();

handlerMyEventsWithHandler(msg =>
  promise.SetResult(msg)
);

// Wait for 2 seconds
if (promise.Task.Wait(2000))
{
  var myResult = promise.Task.Result;
  Debug.Assert("my header" == myResult.Header);
}

Note that it is usually best to use the await/async to as high a level as possible. Accessing the Result of a Task or using Wait can in some cases introduce deadlocks.


You can use C# Promises library

Open sourced on Github: https://github.com/Real-Serious-Games/C-Sharp-Promise

Available on NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/RSG.Promise/