Partitioner<TSource> Class

Definition

Represents a particular manner of splitting a data source into multiple partitions.

C#
public abstract class Partitioner<TSource>

Type Parameters

TSource

Type of the elements in the collection.

Inheritance
Partitioner<TSource>
Derived

Examples

The following example shows how to implement a partitioner that returns a single element at a time:

C#
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.Concurrent;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace PartitionerDemo
{
    // Simple partitioner that will extract one item at a time, in a thread-safe fashion,
    // from the underlying collection.
    class SingleElementPartitioner<T> : Partitioner<T>
    {
        // The collection being wrapped by this Partitioner
        IEnumerable<T> m_referenceEnumerable;

        // Internal class that serves as a shared enumerable for the
        // underlying collection.
        private class InternalEnumerable : IEnumerable<T>, IDisposable
        {
            IEnumerator<T> m_reader;
            bool m_disposed = false;

            // These two are used to implement Dispose() when static partitioning is being performed
            int m_activeEnumerators;
            bool m_downcountEnumerators;

            // "downcountEnumerators" will be true for static partitioning, false for
            // dynamic partitioning.
            public InternalEnumerable(IEnumerator<T> reader, bool downcountEnumerators)
            {
                m_reader = reader;
                m_activeEnumerators = 0;
                m_downcountEnumerators = downcountEnumerators;
            }

            public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
            {
                if (m_disposed)
                    throw new ObjectDisposedException("InternalEnumerable: Can't call GetEnumerator() after disposing");

                // For static partitioning, keep track of the number of active enumerators.
                if (m_downcountEnumerators) Interlocked.Increment(ref m_activeEnumerators);

                return new InternalEnumerator(m_reader, this);
            }

            IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
            {
                return ((IEnumerable<T>)this).GetEnumerator();
            }

            public void Dispose()
            {
                if (!m_disposed)
                {
                    // Only dispose the source enumerator if you are doing dynamic partitioning
                    if (!m_downcountEnumerators)
                    {
                        m_reader.Dispose();
                    }
                    m_disposed = true;
                }
            }

            // Called from Dispose() method of spawned InternalEnumerator.  During
            // static partitioning, the source enumerator will be automatically
            // disposed once all requested InternalEnumerators have been disposed.
            public void DisposeEnumerator()
            {
                if (m_downcountEnumerators)
                {
                    if (Interlocked.Decrement(ref m_activeEnumerators) == 0)
                    {
                        m_reader.Dispose();
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        // Internal class that serves as a shared enumerator for
        // the underlying collection.
        private class InternalEnumerator : IEnumerator<T>
        {
            T m_current;
            IEnumerator<T> m_source;
            InternalEnumerable m_controllingEnumerable;
            bool m_disposed = false;

            public InternalEnumerator(IEnumerator<T> source, InternalEnumerable controllingEnumerable)
            {
                m_source = source;
                m_current = default(T);
                m_controllingEnumerable = controllingEnumerable;
            }

            object IEnumerator.Current
            {
                get { return m_current; }
            }

            T IEnumerator<T>.Current
            {
                get { return m_current; }
            }

            void IEnumerator.Reset()
            {
                throw new NotSupportedException("Reset() not supported");
            }

            // This method is the crux of this class.  Under lock, it calls
            // MoveNext() on the underlying enumerator and grabs Current.
            bool IEnumerator.MoveNext()
            {
                bool rval = false;
                lock (m_source)
                {
                    rval = m_source.MoveNext();
                    m_current = rval ? m_source.Current : default(T);
                }
                return rval;
            }

            void IDisposable.Dispose()
            {
                if (!m_disposed)
                {
                    // Delegate to parent enumerable's DisposeEnumerator() method
                    m_controllingEnumerable.DisposeEnumerator();
                    m_disposed = true;
                }
            }
        }

        // Constructor just grabs the collection to wrap
        public SingleElementPartitioner(IEnumerable<T> enumerable)
        {
            // Verify that the source IEnumerable is not null
            if (enumerable == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("enumerable");

            m_referenceEnumerable = enumerable;
        }

        // Produces a list of "numPartitions" IEnumerators that can each be
        // used to traverse the underlying collection in a thread-safe manner.
        // This will return a static number of enumerators, as opposed to
        // GetDynamicPartitions(), the result of which can be used to produce
        // any number of enumerators.
        public override IList<IEnumerator<T>> GetPartitions(int numPartitions)
        {
            if (numPartitions < 1)
                throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("NumPartitions");

            List<IEnumerator<T>> list = new List<IEnumerator<T>>(numPartitions);

            // Since we are doing static partitioning, create an InternalEnumerable with reference
            // counting of spawned InternalEnumerators turned on.  Once all of the spawned enumerators
            // are disposed, dynamicPartitions will be disposed.
            var dynamicPartitions = new InternalEnumerable(m_referenceEnumerable.GetEnumerator(), true);
            for (int i = 0; i < numPartitions; i++)
                list.Add(dynamicPartitions.GetEnumerator());

            return list;
        }

        // Returns an instance of our internal Enumerable class.  GetEnumerator()
        // can then be called on that (multiple times) to produce shared enumerators.
        public override IEnumerable<T> GetDynamicPartitions()
        {
            // Since we are doing dynamic partitioning, create an InternalEnumerable with reference
            // counting of spawned InternalEnumerators turned off.  This returned InternalEnumerable
            // will need to be explicitly disposed.
            return new InternalEnumerable(m_referenceEnumerable.GetEnumerator(), false);
        }

        // Must be set to true if GetDynamicPartitions() is supported.
        public override bool SupportsDynamicPartitions
        {
            get { return true; }
        }
    }

    class Program
    {
        // Test our SingleElementPartitioner(T) class
        static void Main()
        {
            // Our sample collection
            string[] collection = new string[] {"red", "orange", "yellow", "green", "blue", "indigo",
                "violet", "black", "white", "grey"};

            // Instantiate a partitioner for our collection
            SingleElementPartitioner<string> myPart = new SingleElementPartitioner<string>(collection);

            //
            // Simple test with ForEach
            //
            Console.WriteLine("Testing with Parallel.ForEach");
            Parallel.ForEach(myPart, item =>
            {
                Console.WriteLine("  item = {0}, thread id = {1}", item, Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
            });

            //
            //
            // Demonstrate the use of static partitioning, which really means
            // "using a static number of partitioners".  The partitioners themselves
            // may still be "dynamic" in the sense that their outputs may not be
            // deterministic.
            //
            //

            // Perform static partitioning of collection
            var staticPartitions = myPart.GetPartitions(2);
            int index = 0;

            Console.WriteLine("Static Partitioning, 2 partitions, 2 tasks:");

            // Action will consume from static partitions
            Action staticAction = () =>
            {
                int myIndex = Interlocked.Increment(ref index) - 1; // compute your index
                var myItems = staticPartitions[myIndex]; // grab your static partition
                int id = Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId; // cache your thread id

                // Enumerate through your static partition
                while (myItems.MoveNext())
                {
                    Thread.Sleep(50); // guarantees that multiple threads have a chance to run
                    Console.WriteLine("  item = {0}, thread id = {1}", myItems.Current, Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
                }

                myItems.Dispose();
            };

            // Spawn off 2 actions to consume 2 static partitions
            Parallel.Invoke(staticAction, staticAction);

            //
            //
            // Demonstrate the use of dynamic partitioning
            //
            //

            // Grab an IEnumerable which can then be used to generate multiple
            // shared IEnumerables.
            var dynamicPartitions = myPart.GetDynamicPartitions();

            Console.WriteLine("Dynamic Partitioning, 3 tasks:");

            // Action will consume from dynamic partitions
            Action dynamicAction = () =>
            {
                // Grab an enumerator from the dynamic partitions
                var enumerator = dynamicPartitions.GetEnumerator();
                int id = Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId; // cache our thread id

                // Enumerate through your dynamic enumerator
                while (enumerator.MoveNext())
                {
                    Thread.Sleep(50); // guarantees that multiple threads will have a chance to run
                    Console.WriteLine("  item = {0}, thread id = {1}", enumerator.Current, id);
                }

                enumerator.Dispose();
            };

            // Spawn 3 concurrent actions to consume the dynamic partitions
            Parallel.Invoke(dynamicAction, dynamicAction, dynamicAction);

            // Clean up
            if (dynamicPartitions is IDisposable)
                ((IDisposable)dynamicPartitions).Dispose();
        }
    }
}

Remarks

For more information, see Custom Partitioners for PLINQ and TPL.

Constructors

Partitioner<TSource>()

Creates a new partitioner instance.

Properties

SupportsDynamicPartitions

Gets whether additional partitions can be created dynamically.

Methods

Equals(Object)

Determines whether the specified object is equal to the current object.

(Inherited from Object)
GetDynamicPartitions()

Creates an object that can partition the underlying collection into a variable number of partitions.

GetHashCode()

Serves as the default hash function.

(Inherited from Object)
GetPartitions(Int32)

Partitions the underlying collection into the given number of partitions.

GetType()

Gets the Type of the current instance.

(Inherited from Object)
MemberwiseClone()

Creates a shallow copy of the current Object.

(Inherited from Object)
ToString()

Returns a string that represents the current object.

(Inherited from Object)

Extension Methods

AsParallel<TSource>(Partitioner<TSource>)

Enables parallelization of a query, as sourced by a custom partitioner that is responsible for splitting the input sequence into partitions.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

Thread Safety

The static methods on Partitioner<TSource> are all thread-safe and may be used concurrently from multiple threads. However, while a created partitioner is in use, the underlying data source should not be modified, whether from the same thread that is using a partitioner or from a separate thread.

See also