Async await in linq select

by 
var inputs = events.Select(async ev => await ProcessEventAsync(ev))
                   .Select(t => t.Result)
                   .Where(i => i != null)
                   .ToList();

But this seems very weird to me, first of all the use of async and await in the select. According to this answer by Stephen Cleary I should be able to drop those.

The call to Select is valid. These two lines are essentially identical:

events.Select(async ev => await ProcessEventAsync(ev))
events.Select(ev => ProcessEventAsync(ev))

(There’s a minor difference regarding how a synchronous exception would be thrown from ProcessEventAsync, but in the context of this code it doesn’t matter at all.)

Then the second Select which selects the result. Doesn’t this mean the task isn’t async at all and is performed synchronously (so much effort for nothing), or will the task be performed asynchronously and when it’s done the rest of the query is executed?

It means that the query is blocking. So it is not really asynchronous.

Breaking it down:

var inputs = events.Select(async ev => await ProcessEventAsync(ev))

will first start an asynchronous operation for each event. Then this line:

                   .Select(t => t.Result)

will wait for those operations to complete one at a time (first it waits for the first event’s operation, then the next, then the next, etc).

This is the part I don’t care for, because it blocks and also would wrap any exceptions in AggregateException.

and is it completely the same like this?

var tasks = await Task.WhenAll(events.Select(ev => ProcessEventAsync(ev)));
var inputs = tasks.Where(result => result != null).ToList();

var inputs = (await Task.WhenAll(events.Select(ev => ProcessEventAsync(ev))))
                                       .Where(result => result != null).ToList();

Yes, those two examples are equivalent. They both start all asynchronous operations (events.Select(...)), then asynchronously wait for all the operations to complete in any order (await Task.WhenAll(...)), then proceed with the rest of the work (Where...).

Both of these examples are different from the original code. The original code is blocking and will wrap exceptions in AggregateException.

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