C# | System.IO.Pipelines Cool way to read and write data streams!

System.IO.Pipelines cool way to read and write data streams!

foreword

Text shares a new way of reading and writing data streams - System.IO.Pipelines. This thing appeared in .NET Core 2.1, and it can help you process data streams more efficiently.

What is System.IO.Pipelines?

System.IO.Pipelines is a high-performance API for reading and writing streams of data. It mainly consists of three parts: Pipe , PipelineReader and PipelineWriter .

A Pipe is an asynchronous , thread-safe buffer that lets data flow between producers and consumers. PipelineReader and PipelineWriter are the reading and writing endpoints of the Pipe.

What are the advantages?

This thing has the following advantages:

1. High performance : System.IO.Pipelines is able to handle large amounts of data without requiring additional memory allocation, which means you can reduce memory usage.
2. Low Latency : Its ability to process data without blocking threads in the thread pool means your application can respond to requests faster.
3. Asynchronous reads and writes : System.IO.Pipelines supports asynchronous reads and writes, which means that your application can handle multiple requests at the same time without blocking threads in the thread pool.
4. Scalability : System.IO.Pipelines can be easily extended to multiple processors, enabling high concurrent processing.

What are the application scenarios?

network programming

If you're writing a web application, then System.IO.Pipelines is probably the best choice for you. It can help you efficiently handle large amounts of network traffic. You can use PipelineWriter to write data into the buffer, and use PipelineReader to read the data in the buffer in another thread and process it. This can greatly reduce memory allocation and thread blocking, thereby improving the responsiveness of the application.

file processing

System.IO.Pipelines is also very useful if you need to process large amounts of file data. You can read the file in chunks into the buffer, and then use PipelineReader to read the data in the buffer and process it. This can greatly reduce the overhead of memory allocation and file I/O, thereby improving the efficiency of file processing.

how to use?

Divided into three steps:

1. Create Pipe: Create a buffer for reading and writing data.
2. Write data: Use PipelineWriter to write data to the buffer.
3. Read data and process: Use PipelineReader to read the data in the buffer and process it.

Here is a simple example that demonstrates reading and processing a byte array using System.IO.Pipelines:

using System;
using System.Buffers;
using System.IO.Pipelines;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace PipelinesTest
{
    
    
    class Program
    {
    
    
        static async Task Main(string[] args)
        {
    
    
            var data = new byte[] {
    
     1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

            // 创建缓冲区
            var pipe = new Pipe();

            // 写入数据到缓冲区
            await pipe.Writer.WriteAsync(data);

            // 读取数据并处理
            while (true)
            {
    
    
                var result = await pipe.Reader.ReadAsync();
                var buffer = result.Buffer;

                try
                {
    
    
                    if (buffer.IsEmpty && result.IsCompleted)
                    {
    
    
                        break;
                    }

                    // 处理数据
                    foreach (var segment in buffer)
                    {
    
    
                        Console.WriteLine(segment.Span[0]);
                    }
                }
                finally
                {
    
    
                    // 将已处理的数据从缓冲区中删除
                    pipe.Reader.AdvanceTo(buffer.End);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}