In this article we want to learn about An Introduction to Python asyncio: Asynchronous Programming Made Easy.
Introduction to Python
Python is popular and famous programming language and it is easy to use. it has rich standard library that provides modules for different tasks, including network programming, web development and data analysis. in the newer version of Python standard library, we have asyncio module, which is a library for asynchronous programming.
An Introduction to Python asyncio: Asynchronous Programming Made Easy
Asynchronous programming is programming paradigm that allows for non-blocking I/O operations. it is particularly useful when dealing with I/O-bound tasks, such as network communication or reading and writing files. traditional blocking I/O operations can lead to performance bottlenecks, as they require the program to wait until the I/O operation is completed before moving on to the next task.
An Introduction to Python asyncio
The asyncio python module was introduced in Python 3.4 and this library provides framework for writing asynchronous code using coroutines, coroutines special functions that can be paused and resumed. Coroutines are similar to generators, but they can be used to perform I/O operations in non-blocking way.
the core of the asyncio module is the event loop, and it manages the execution of coroutines and the scheduling of I/O operations. the event loop is responsible for coordinating the execution of multiple coroutines, and it can be run in a single thread or multiple threads.
To use the asyncio module, you first need to create an event loop. you can do this by calling the asyncio.get_event_loop() function. once you have event loop, you can create coroutines using the async def syntax. for example, this is a simple coroutine that prints a message and waits for a second:
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import asyncio async def hello_world(): print("Hello, world!") await asyncio.sleep(1) print("Goodbye, world!") |
To run this coroutine, you need to create a task and add it to the event loop. You can do this using the create_task() method of the event loop object:
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loop = asyncio.get_event_loop() task = loop.create_task(hello_world()) loop.run_until_complete(task) |
This will print “Hello world!” after that wait for a second, and then it prints “Goodbye world!”. The run_until_complete() method runs the event loop until the coroutine is completed.
The asyncio module also provides different other features for managing coroutines and I/O operations. for example, you can use the asyncio.gather() function to run multiple coroutines concurrently, or you can use the asyncio.wait() function to wait for multiple coroutines to complete.
Overall, the asyncio module is a powerful tool for writing asynchronous Python code. tt can improve the performance of I/O-bound tasks and make it easier to manage concurrency in your code. if you’re interested in learning more about asyncio, i recommend checking out the Python documentation, as well as the many tutorials and articles available online.
asyncio Additional Features
These are some additional features of asyncio:
- Task cancellation: asyncio allows you to cancel running task using the
Task.cancel()
method. this method sends aCancelledError
exception to the coroutine, which can then clean up its resources and exit gracefully. - Futures:
Future
is special object that represents the result of an asynchronous operation. you can useasyncio.Future
class to create future and then useFuture.set_result()
method to set the result when operation has been completed. - Timers: You can use
asyncio.sleep()
function to introduce delays into your coroutine. thesleep()
function is coroutine that suspends the execution of the coroutine for a specified amount of time. - Event handling: The
asyncio
module provides an event loop that can be used to wait for multiple events. you can use theasyncio.Event
class to create events that can be set and cleared by coroutines. - Concurrency and parallelism: asyncio allows you to write concurrent and parallel code. you can use the
asyncio.gather()
function to run multiple coroutines concurrently, and you can use theThreadPoolExecutor
andProcessPoolExecutor
classes to run coroutines in parallel using threads or processes. - Networking: asyncio provides a high-level networking API that allows you to write network servers and clients. you can use
asyncio.Protocol
class to define network protocol, andasyncio.start_server()
andasyncio.open_connection()
functions to create servers and clients.
These are just a few features that is provided by asyncio. in result we can say that asyncio is powerful tool for writing asynchronous Python code, and it can greatly improve the performance and responsiveness of your applications.
Learn More on Python
- Python Requests Library: A Guide to Simplifying HTTP Requests
- Asynchronous Web Development with Python and aiohttp
- Python Treq: An Introduction to a Powerful HTTP Client Library
- Introduction to Python httplib2 Library
- An Introduction to Python’s urllib Library
- Python httpx: A High-Performance HTTP Client for Python 3