Calling an async method from a synchronous method

Question

I am attempting to run async methods from a synchronous method. But I can't await the async method since I am in a synchronous method. I must not be understanding TPL as this is the fist time I'm using it.

private void GetAllData()
{
    GetData1()
    GetData2()
    GetData3()
}

Each method needs the previous method to finish as the data from the first is used for the second.

However, inside each method I want to start multiple Task operations in order to speed up the performance. Then I want to wait for all of them to finish.

GetData1 looks like this

    internal static void GetData1 ()
    {
        const int CONCURRENCY_LEVEL = 15; 
        List<Task<Data>> dataTasks = new List<Task<Data>>();
        for (int item = 0; item < TotalItems; item++)
        {
            dataTasks.Add(MyAyncMethod(State[item]));
        }
        int taskIndex = 0;
        //Schedule tasks to concurency level (or all)
        List<Task<Data>> runningTasks = new List<Task<Data>>();
        while (taskIndex < CONCURRENCY_LEVEL && taskIndex < dataTasks.Count)
        {
            runningTasks.Add(dataTasks[taskIndex]);
            taskIndex++;
        }

        //Start tasks and wait for them to finish
        while (runningTasks.Count > 0)
        {
            Task<Data> dataTask = await Task.WhenAny(runningTasks);
            runningTasks.Remove(dataTask);
            myData = await dataTask;


            //Schedule next concurrent task
            if (taskIndex < dataTasks.Count)
            {
                runningTasks.Add(dataTasks[taskIndex]);
                taskIndex++;
            }
        }
        Task.WaitAll(dataTasks.ToArray()); //This probably isn't necessary
    }

I am using await here but get an Error

The 'await' operator can only be used within an async method. Consider marking this method with the 'async' modifier and changing its return type to 'Task'

However, if I use the async modifier this will be an asynchronous operation. Therefore, if my call to GetData1 doesn't use the await operator won't control go to GetData2 on the first await, which is what I am trying to avoid? Is it possible to keep GetData1 as a synchronous method that calls an asynchronous method? Am I designing the Asynchronous method incorrectly? As you can see I'm quite confused.

This could be a duplicate of How to call asynchronous method from synchronous method in C#? However, I'm not sure how to apply the solutions provided there as I'm starting multiple tasks, want to WaitAny, do a little more processing for that task, then wait for all tasks to finish before handing control back to the caller.

UPDATE

Here is the solution I went with based on the answers below:

    private static List<T> RetrievePageTaskScheduler<T>(
        List<T> items,
        List<WebPageState> state,
        Func<WebPageState, Task<List<T>>> func)
    {
        int taskIndex = 0;

        // Schedule tasks to concurency level (or all)
        List<Task<List<T>>> runningTasks = new List<Task<List<T>>>();
        while (taskIndex < CONCURRENCY_LEVEL_PER_PROCESSOR * Environment.ProcessorCount
            && taskIndex < state.Count)
        {
            runningTasks.Add(func(state[taskIndex]));
            taskIndex++;
        }

        // Start tasks and wait for them to finish
        while (runningTasks.Count > 0)
        {
            Task<List<T>> task = Task.WhenAny(runningTasks).Result;
            runningTasks.Remove(task);

            try
            {
                items.AddRange(task.Result);
            }
            catch (AggregateException ex)
            {
                /* Throwing this exception means that if one task fails 
                 * don't process any more of them */

                // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8853693/pattern-for-implementing-sync-methods-in-terms-of-non-parallel-task-translating
                System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Capture(
                    ex.Flatten().InnerExceptions.First()).Throw();
            }

            // Schedule next concurrent task
            if (taskIndex < state.Count)
            {
                runningTasks.Add(func(state[taskIndex]));
                taskIndex++;
            }
        }

        return items;
    }

Answer 1

Task<TResult>.Result (or Task.Wait() when there's no result) is similar to await, but is a synchronous operation. You should change GetData1() to use this. Here's the portion to change:

Task<Data> dataTask = Task.WhenAny(runningTasks).Result;
runningTasks.Remove(dataTask);
myData = gameTask.Result;

Answer 2

First, I recommend that your "internal" tasks not use Task.Run in their implementation. You should use an async method that does the CPU-bound portion synchronously.

Once your MyAsyncMethod is an async method that does some CPU-bound processing, then you can wrap it in a Task and use parallel processing as such:

internal static void GetData1()
{
    // Start the tasks
    var dataTasks = Enumerable.Range(0, TotalItems)
        .Select(item => Task.Run(() => MyAyncMethod(State[item]))).ToList();

    // Wait for them all to complete
    Task.WaitAll(dataTasks);
}

Your concurrency limiting in your original code won't work at all, so I removed it for simpilicity. If you want to apply a limit, you can either use SemaphoreSlim or TPL Dataflow.

Answer 3

You can call the following:

GetData1().Wait();
GetData2().Wait();
GetData3().Wait();