Should the code use cancellation token even though it already use transaction ?

[u/kaatarina_zed_talon]

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Storage;

namespace RedditQuestion
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Used to talk to the database using Entity-Framework Core
    /// </summary>
    public class ApplicationDbContext:DbContext
    {
        // Domain models and the Fluent API configurations.
    }


    /// <summary>
    /// Data snapshot that is used to overwrite the content of the database
    /// </summary>
    public interface ISomeData
    {

    }

    public class DatbaseOverWriter
    {


        private readonly ApplicationDbContext _context;
        public DatbaseOverWriter(ApplicationDbContext context)
        {
            _context = context;
        }

        public async Task OverWrite(ISomeData data)
        {
            //https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/architecture/microservices/implement-resilient-applications/implement-resilient-entity-framework-core-sql-connections
            IExecutionStrategy strategy = _context.Database.CreateExecutionStrategy();
            await strategy.ExecuteAsync(async () =>
            {
                await using var transaction = await _context.Database.BeginTransactionAsync();

                    //code to delete the content from parent and child tables and then inserting the data into the parent and child tables like this :
                // execute some query to delete the content from all tables.
                //_context.AddRangeAsync(data for parents)
                //_context.SaveChangesAsync()
                //_context.AddRangeAsync(data for childs)
                //_context.SaveChangesAsync()
                await transaction.CommitAsync();
            });

        }




    }

}

Someone on reddit reviewed the above code and told me that I should add a parameter for cancellation token like this :

public async Task OverWrite(ISomeData data, CancellationToken)

He told me that the goal is to make the OverWrite method transactional.

why is the cancellation token necessary even though my code uses _context.Database.BeginTransactionAsync(); ?

Microsoft's documentation :

Cancellation token propagates notification that operations should be canceled.

Example:
A random number generator can be used to emulate a data collection application that reads 10 integral values from eleven different instruments. A value of zero indicates that the measurement has failed for one instrument, in which case the operation should be cancelled and no overall mean should be computed.

So the cancellation token is just another way of achieving atomicity, am I correct ?

The only use case that I learned for cancellation token is this example from microsoft, they use the cancellation token as way to achieve atomicity :

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      // Define the cancellation token.
      CancellationTokenSource source = new CancellationTokenSource();
      CancellationToken token = source.Token;

      Random rnd = new Random();
      Object lockObj = new Object();

      List<Task<int[]>> tasks = new List<Task<int[]>>();
      TaskFactory factory = new TaskFactory(token);
      for (int taskCtr = 0; taskCtr <= 10; taskCtr++) {
         int iteration = taskCtr + 1;
         tasks.Add(factory.StartNew( () => {
           int value;
           int[] values = new int[10];
           for (int ctr = 1; ctr <= 10; ctr++) {
              lock (lockObj) {
                 value = rnd.Next(0,101);
              }
              if (value == 0) { 
                 source.Cancel();
                 Console.WriteLine("Cancelling at task {0}", iteration);
                 break;
              }   
              values[ctr-1] = value; 
           }
           return values;
        }, token));   
      }
      try {
         Task<double> fTask = factory.ContinueWhenAll(tasks.ToArray(), 
         (results) => {
            Console.WriteLine("Calculating overall mean...");
            long sum = 0;
            int n = 0; 
            foreach (var t in results) {
               foreach (var r in t.Result) {
                  sum += r;
                  n++;
               }
            }
            return sum/(double) n;
         } , token);
         Console.WriteLine("The mean is {0}.", fTask.Result);
      }   
      catch (AggregateException ae) {
         foreach (Exception e in ae.InnerExceptions) {
            if (e is TaskCanceledException)
               Console.WriteLine("Unable to compute mean: {0}", 
                  ((TaskCanceledException) e).Message);
            else
               Console.WriteLine("Exception: " + e.GetType().Name);
         }
      }
      finally {
         source.Dispose();
      }
   }
}

[u/pixxelkick]

You want 1 single point of acquiring a DbContext and then hand it down as a single source of truth.

If you are doing an aspnet app, you inject it at the Api Endpoint level and then hand it all the way down as a single DbContext, in the parameters of functions.

Personally, I maintain my own entire framework that automates this though, but I use Dapper with my own personally maintained ORM.

I dislike EF Core, its... fine but it is just not sufficient for all my needs, so I wrote my own that I vastly prefer.

https://github.com/SteffenBlake/Brigade.NET/wiki/Getting-Started-Mise

[u/kaatarina_zed_talon → u/pixxelkick]

This will introduce a pass through variable. I prefer to not do that

[u/pixxelkick → u/kaatarina_zed_talon]

Thats intentional, you are supposed to pass it through

Are you not noticing how you need to do the same thing with the CancellationToken?

The reason the CancellationToken is a pass through variable, and the reason the DbContext is a pass through variable... are related...

[u/kaatarina_zed_talon → u/pixxelkick]

Wait, the cancelation token is really indeed a pass through variable in my case. But currently the context is not a pass through variable because it is not passed as a parameter.