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Handling Asynchronous File I/O in C# Without Blocking the UI Thread

👀 Views: 428 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-09-06
async file-io windows-forms ui C#

I'm collaborating on a project where I need some guidance on I've searched everywhere and can't find a clear answer... Currently developing a Windows Forms application in C# where I need to read large files without freezing the UI. I want to implement asynchronous file I/O but am running into some confusion regarding the best approach. My initial attempt was to use `File.ReadAllTextAsync()`, but I’m unsure how to properly handle the result on the main UI thread. Here's what I’ve tried: ```csharp private async void btnReadFile_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { try { string filePath = "C:\path\to\your\file.txt"; string fileContent = await File.ReadAllTextAsync(filePath); txtFileContent.Text = fileContent; // txtFileContent is a TextBox } catch (Exception ex) { MessageBox.Show("Error: " + ex.Message); } } ``` This code snippet compiles and runs, but sometimes I see a `TaskCanceledException` if the file is particularly large. Additionally, during testing, the UI momentarily freezes as it waits for the file to read. I’m not sure if I'm missing any best practices for handling this scenario, especially when it comes to reporting progress back to the UI or handling potential errors more gracefully. Any advice on improving this approach would be greatly appreciated. Is there a more efficient way to manage this? Should I consider using `IProgress<T>` for displaying progress during the read operation? For context: I'm using C# on macOS. Any help would be greatly appreciated! This is for a web app running on CentOS. This is for a CLI tool running on Linux. Could this be a known issue?