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How to: Write a simple Parallel.ForEach loop

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This article shows how to use a Parallel.ForEach loop to enable data parallelism over any System.Collections.IEnumerable or System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<T> data source.

Note

This documentation uses lambda expressions to define delegates in PLINQ. If you aren't familiar with lambda expressions in C# or Visual Basic, see Lambda expressions in PLINQ and TPL.

Example

This example demonstrates Parallel.ForEach for CPU-intensive operations. When you run the example, it randomly generates 2 million numbers and tries to filter to prime numbers. The first case iterates over the collection via a for loop. The second case iterates over the collection via Parallel.ForEach. The resulting time taken by each iteration is displayed when the application is finished.

using System;
using System.Collections.Concurrent;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace ParallelExample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            // 2 million
            var limit = 2_000_000;
            var numbers = Enumerable.Range(0, limit).ToList();

            var watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
            var primeNumbersFromForeach = GetPrimeList(numbers);
            watch.Stop();

            var watchForParallel = Stopwatch.StartNew();
            var primeNumbersFromParallelForeach = GetPrimeListWithParallel(numbers);
            watchForParallel.Stop();

            Console.WriteLine($"Classical foreach loop | Total prime numbers : {primeNumbersFromForeach.Count} | Time Taken : {watch.ElapsedMilliseconds} ms.");
            Console.WriteLine($"Parallel.ForEach loop  | Total prime numbers : {primeNumbersFromParallelForeach.Count} | Time Taken : {watchForParallel.ElapsedMilliseconds} ms.");

            Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit.");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// GetPrimeList returns Prime numbers by using sequential ForEach
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="inputs"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private static IList<int> GetPrimeList(IList<int> numbers) => numbers.Where(IsPrime).ToList();

        /// <summary>
        /// GetPrimeListWithParallel returns Prime numbers by using Parallel.ForEach
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="numbers"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private static IList<int> GetPrimeListWithParallel(IList<int> numbers)
        {
            var primeNumbers = new ConcurrentBag<int>();

            Parallel.ForEach(numbers, number =>
            {
                if (IsPrime(number))
                {
                    primeNumbers.Add(number);
                }
            });

            return primeNumbers.ToList();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// IsPrime returns true if number is Prime, else false.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="number"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private static bool IsPrime(int number)
        {
            if (number < 2)
            {
                return false;
            }

            for (var divisor = 2; divisor <= Math.Sqrt(number); divisor++)
            {
                if (number % divisor == 0)
                {
                    return false;
                }
            }
            return true;
        }
    }
}

Imports System.Collections.Concurrent

Namespace ParallelExample
    Class Program
        Shared Sub Main()
            ' 2 million
            Dim limit = 2_000_000
            Dim numbers = Enumerable.Range(0, limit).ToList()

            Dim watch = Stopwatch.StartNew()
            Dim primeNumbersFromForeach = GetPrimeList(numbers)
            watch.Stop()

            Dim watchForParallel = Stopwatch.StartNew()
            Dim primeNumbersFromParallelForeach = GetPrimeListWithParallel(numbers)
            watchForParallel.Stop()

            Console.WriteLine($"Classical foreach loop | Total prime numbers : {primeNumbersFromForeach.Count} | Time Taken : {watch.ElapsedMilliseconds} ms.")
            Console.WriteLine($"Parallel.ForEach loop  | Total prime numbers : {primeNumbersFromParallelForeach.Count} | Time Taken : {watchForParallel.ElapsedMilliseconds} ms.")

            Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit.")
            Console.ReadLine()
        End Sub

        ' GetPrimeList returns Prime numbers by using sequential ForEach
        Private Shared Function GetPrimeList(numbers As IList(Of Integer)) As IList(Of Integer)
            Return numbers.Where(AddressOf IsPrime).ToList()
        End Function

        ' GetPrimeListWithParallel returns Prime numbers by using Parallel.ForEach
        Private Shared Function GetPrimeListWithParallel(numbers As IList(Of Integer)) As IList(Of Integer)
            Dim primeNumbers = New ConcurrentBag(Of Integer)()
            Parallel.ForEach(numbers, Sub(number)

                                          If IsPrime(number) Then
                                              primeNumbers.Add(number)
                                          End If
                                      End Sub)
            Return primeNumbers.ToList()
        End Function

        ' IsPrime returns true if number is Prime, else false.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number)
        Private Shared Function IsPrime(number As Integer) As Boolean
            If number < 2 Then
                Return False
            End If

            For divisor = 2 To Math.Sqrt(number)

                If number Mod divisor = 0 Then
                    Return False
                End If
            Next

            Return True
        End Function
    End Class
End Namespace

A Parallel.ForEach loop works like a Parallel.For loop. The loop partitions the source collection and schedules the work on multiple threads based on the system environment. The more processors on the system, the faster the parallel method runs. For some source collections, a sequential loop might be faster, depending on the size of the source and the kind of work the loop performs. For more information about performance, see Potential pitfalls in data and task parallelism.

For more information about parallel loops, see How to: Write a simple Parallel.For loop.

To use the Parallel.ForEach loop with a non-generic collection, you can use the Enumerable.Cast extension method to convert the collection to a generic collection, as shown in the following example:

Parallel.ForEach(nonGenericCollection.Cast<object>(),
    currentElement =>
    {
    });

Parallel.ForEach(nonGenericCollection.Cast(Of Object), _
                 Sub(currentElement)
                     ' ... work with currentElement
                 End Sub)

You can also use Parallel LINQ (PLINQ) to parallelize the processing of IEnumerable<T> data sources. PLINQ enables you to use declarative query syntax to express the loop behavior. For more information, see Parallel LINQ (PLINQ).

Compile and run the code

You can compile the code as a console application for .NET Framework or as a console application for .NET Core.

In Visual Studio, there are Visual Basic and C# console application templates for Windows Desktop and .NET Core.

From the command line, you can use the .NET CLI commands (for example, dotnet new console or dotnet new console -lang vb) or create the file and use the command-line compiler for a .NET Framework application.

To run a .NET Core console application from the command line, use dotnet run from the folder that contains your application.

To run your console application from Visual Studio, press F5.

See also