Lambda expressions and closures

I’ve been dealing a lot with anonymous methods lately I started getting interested in how they work, especially when dealing with closures. I was curious how these variables worked.

for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++) 
{
    Task.Factory.StartNew(() => Console.WriteLine(i));
}

One might think that this would output 0, 1, 2, 3, 4...9 however as the anonymous methods might not be run at the time they’re defined and the loop may finish faster and set i to 10 before the anonymous methods are even executed (depending on the speed of your system). The output on my system results in 10 lines of 10. The reason for this is how c# generates the code for this. I’ve simplified it for brevity.

//original code
class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            Task.Factory.StartNew(() => Console.WriteLine(i));
        }
    }
}

//after compilation
//this code has been simplified
//for readability
class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        c__DisplayClass2 cDisplayClass2 = new c__DisplayClass2();
        for (cDisplayClass2.i = 0; cDisplayClass2.i < 10; cDisplayClass2.i++)
        {
            Task.Factory.StartNew((Action)(cDisplayClass2.b__0));
        }
    }
}

[CompilerGenerated]
private sealed class c__DisplayClass2
{
    public int i;

    public void b__0()
    {
        Console.WriteLine(this.i);
    }
}

Wow. The lambda expression sure does hide a lot of code. Let’s see what’s going on here. Notice a new class was created and it has a public property i. This replaces the local variable in the for/loop. This is how we can access the closure within the anonymous method. It no longer exists in the context of a local variable of the function but as a global field of the generated class. As the methods don’t necessarily execute when called you must make sure to make a local copy of that variable. If not the member variable might change before execution.

What if you’re accessing a member field of the calling class?

//original
class Program
{
    private string test = "test";

    static void Main()
    {
        var p = new Program();
        p.Run();
    }

    private void Run()
    {
        Task.Factory.StartNew(() => Console.WriteLine(test));
    }
}


//after compilation
//this code has been simplified
//for readability
class Program
{
    private string test = "test";

    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        new Program().Run();
    }

    private void Run()
    {
        Task.Factory.StartNew((Action)(b__0));
    }

    [CompilerGenerated]
    private void b__0()
    {
        Console.WriteLine(this.test);
    }
}

As we can see, this time, the CompilerGenerated method resides in the same class. This is required because it needs to access the same field of the calling class. However, if you need both, access to a local variable and one to a member variable it creates a second class with a references to the caller.

//after compilation
//this code has been simplified
//for readability
class Program
{
    private string test = "test1";

    private void Run()
    {
        c__DisplayClass1 cDisplayClass1 = new c__DisplayClass1();
        cDisplayClass1.__this = this;
        Task.Factory.StartNew((Action)(b__0));
    }

    [CompilerGenerated]
    private sealed class c__DisplayClass1
    {
      public string test1;
      public Program __this;

      public void b__0()
      {
          Console.WriteLine(this.__this.test + this.test1);
      }
    }
}

Knowing how the compiler acts on your code is important. Hopefully this will give you some insight as to how some of the magic with anonymous methods/functions happens.