Task.Wait() Vs Task.GetAwaiter().GetResult()

In this post, let's go through one of the best practices when using async/await.

In some cases, we might want to run an async method synchronously and wait for the execution to be completed. Let's consider the below code.

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // 1
    RunSomeTask().Wait();
 
    // 2
    //RunSomeTask().GetAwaiter().GetResult();
}
 
private static async Task RunSomeTask()
{
    // some long running work
}

 So our options to call RunSomeTask synchronously would be something like below,

1. Task.Wait() (or Task.Result to get the return value if it returns something)
2. Task.GetAwaiter().GetResult()

What would you prefer?

So the best practice is, we should be using Task.GetAwaiter().GetResult() instead of Task.Wait()/Task.Result(). Let's see why.

For the purpose of this post, I am modifying the RunSomeTask() method to throw an exception.

private static async Task RunSomeTask()
{
    await Task.Delay(200);
 
    throw new Exception("Failed because of some reason");
}

Now let's have a look at 2 different outputs.

When used Task.Wait():

Task.Wait()

When used Task.GetAwaiter().GetResult():

Task.GetAwaiter().GetResult()

As you can see when used Task.Wait(), if the task threw an exception, it will be wrapped inside an AggregateException. But when we are using Task.GetAwaiter().GetResult(), it will throw the exception directly which will make things like debugging/logging easy.

That's a very simple tip, but can be really useful.

On a final note, we should avoid calling tasks synchronously as much as possible.

Hope this helps.

Happy Coding.

Regards,

Jaliya