Async.SwitchToNewThread Method (F#)

Creates an asynchronous computation that creates a new thread and runs its continuation in that thread.

Namespace/Module Path: Microsoft.FSharp.Control

Assembly: FSharp.Core (in FSharp.Core.dll)

// Signature:
static member SwitchToNewThread : unit -> Async<unit>

// Usage:
Async.SwitchToNewThread ()

Return Value

A computation that will execute on a new thread.

Example

The following code example shows how to use Async.SwitchToNewThread and Async.SwitchToThreadPool to wrap a synchronous method call as an asynchronous method.

open System
open System.IO

let asyncMethod f = 
    async {  
        do! Async.SwitchToNewThread() 
        let result = f() 
        do! Async.SwitchToThreadPool() 
        return result
    } 

let GetFilesAsync(path) = asyncMethod (fun () -> Directory.GetFiles(path))

let listFiles path =
    async {
        let! files = GetFilesAsync(path)
        Array.iter (fun elem -> printfn "%s" elem) files
    }

printfn "Here we go..."
// The output is interleaved, which shows that these are both 
// running simultaneously.
Async.Start(listFiles ".")
Async.Start(listFiles ".")
Console.WriteLine("Press a key to continue...")
Console.ReadLine() |> ignore

Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP x64 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP2

Version Information

F# Runtime

Supported in: 2.0, 4.0

Silverlight

Supported in: 3

See Also

Reference

Control.Async Class (F#)

Microsoft.FSharp.Control Namespace (F#)