Create async methods to load data from database using EF - entity-framework

Question

how does one write an async method that gets data from database, using DbContext and .NET 4.0?
public Task<List<Product>> GetProductsAsync()
{
// Context.Set<Product>().ToList();
}
so we can await somewhere for result of this method
// somewhere
List<Product> products = await repository.GetProductsAsync();
What is important is that I do not want to use thread pool thread for this task, since this is an IO task, and I need to support framework 4.0, and EF6 had added support for async methods only in 4.5, if I am not mistaken.

Answer 1

Not possible, SaveAsync is wrapped with:
#if !NET40
Source: https://github.com/aspnet/EntityFramework6/blob/master/src/EntityFramework/DbContext.cs#L335

Answer 2

Installing Entity Framework 6 is available as a Nuget Package and works also with .NET 4. In EF6, async
DB calls can be done like this example:
public static async Task<List<Customer>> SelectAllAsync()
{
using (var context = new NorthWindEntities())
{
var query = from c in context.Customers
orderby c.CustomerID ascending
select c;
return await query.ToListAsync();
}
}
Here, a DbContext is instantiated in a using block and the query will search the Northwind database for all its customers and order ascending by primary key CustomerID. The method needs to be decorated with async keyword and must return a task of the desired type T, here a list of customers. The result will then be return by using the ToListAsync() method in this case and one must remember to use the await keyword. There are additional Async methods in EF6, such as SaveChangesAsync, SingleOrDefaultAsync and so on. Also, async methods in C# should following this naming conventions according to guidelines.
To get started test the code above in Visual Studio, just create a new Console Application solution, type: install-package EntityFramework in the Package Manager Console and add an edmx file pointing to a local Northwind database. The main method will then just call the method above like this:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
var task = CustomHelper.SelectAllAsync();
task.Wait();
Console.WriteLine("Got data!");
List<Customer> data = task.Result;
Console.WriteLine(data.Count);
Console.WriteLine("Async op took: " + sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);
sw.Stop();
sw.Start();
//data =
//var data = CustomHelper.SelectAll();
//Console.WriteLine("Got data!");
//Console.WriteLine(data.Count);
//Console.WriteLine("Sync operation took: " + sw.ElapsedMilliseconds);
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue ...");
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
I see that the async operation takes a bit longer than the sync operation, so the async db call will have some time penalty but allows asynchronous processing, not freezing the calling code awaiting the result in a blocking fashion.