Have you ever wondered how you can make your computer programs run faster? Well, computers with multiple cores or processors are the norm nowadays and you can take advantage of this power by using parallelism in your code. Let’s explore the basics of parallelism in C# and how you can implement it to speed up your programs.

What is Parallelism?

Parallelism is the concept of dividing a task into smaller sub-tasks and processing them simultaneously. This can be particularly helpful when you have a large task that takes a long time to complete. By breaking it into smaller parts and working on them at the same time, you can complete the overall task much faster.

C# and the Task Parallel Library (TPL)

C# is a powerful programming language that makes it easy to implement parallelism in your code. One way to do this is by using the Task Parallel Library (TPL). The TPL is a set of tools and features in C# that helps you create and manage parallel tasks. It provides several methods to create and execute tasks in parallel.

Parallel.ForEach

The simplest way to start using parallelism in C# is with the Parallel.ForEach method. This method is used to perform a specific action on each item in a collection, like a list or an array. Here’s an example of how you can use the Parallel.ForEach method:

List<int> numbers = new List<int> { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

Parallel.ForEach(numbers, (number) => {
    Console.WriteLine($"Processing number: {number}");
});

In this example, we have a list of numbers, and we want to perform an action (in this case, printing the number) on each item. Using Parallel.ForEach, we can process all the numbers simultaneously, which can be much faster than processing them one by one.

Task.Run

Another way to use parallelism in C# is with the Task.Run method. This method allows you to create and start a new task that runs in parallel with the rest of your code. Here’s an example of how to use Task.Run:

Task task1 = Task.Run(() => {
    Console.WriteLine("Task 1 is running");
});

Task task2 = Task.Run(() => {
    Console.WriteLine("Task 2 is running");
});

Task.WaitAll(task1, task2);
Console.WriteLine("Both tasks have finished");

In this example, we create two tasks that run in parallel. Each task simply prints a message to the console. After starting both tasks, we use the Task.WaitAll method to wait for them to finish before continuing with the rest of the code.

Parallelism in C# is a powerful tool that can help you improve the performance of your code. By using the Task Parallel Library and methods like Parallel.ForEach and Task.Run, you can easily create parallel tasks and harness the power of your computer’s multiple cores. This can lead to faster execution times and a better overall experience for users of your programs. So, the next time you have a large task to tackle, consider using parallelism to supercharge your code!