Is GetOrCreate thread-safe?

[withinoneyear]

I wonder if GetOrCreate extension method thread-safe?

From the source code it seems to perform 2 steps separately - check if key exists and then add if not. No lock is being used, so is it thread-safe?

[Tratcher]

Do you mean to ask if it guarantees nothing else will modify the same cache key? No, it doesn't. Other threads may attempt to create an entry with the same key at the same time. Only the low level cache operations are thread safe such as Get or Set, and only in that they will not corrupt the cache. When multiple threads are operating on one key there's no guarantee which will win.

[withinoneyear]

Thanks, I misunderstood how it works.

[amit-ezra]

even though this issue is closed, I think it's it should be reopened.
IMO, methods named like GetOrCreate should be atomic, i.e. thread safe. moreover the underlying ConcurrentDictionary.GetOrCreate IS thread safe, it's just is not being used in the extension method.

moreover, AFAIK the .net framework equivalent was thread safe

relevant discussion on stack overflow

[sebastienros]

@amit-ezra
Like ConcurrentDictionary it is thread-safe. Like ConcurrentDictionary it is not atomic.

[amit-ezra]

@sebastienros
What I mean is - if you have multiple threads using GetOrCreate at the same time, with the same key and different value, with MemoryCache, you would get different results from each thread. which is not the desired behavior (IMO at least), and is not the same behavior you get with ConcurrentDictionary . you would expect the first thread to create, and others to get.

Maybe it's best if i give an example.
suppose you run 10 threads with the following method

private static void Worker()
    {
      var ret = memoryCache.GetOrCreate("key", (entry) => rand.Next());
      Console.WriteLine($"ret={ret}");
      Thread.Sleep(10);
    }

you would find that you get different results for ret

you run the same code (with minor adjustments) with ConcurrentDictionary.GetOrAdd you get the same ret for all threads.

I think ConcurrentDictionary is doing it the right way.

[sebastienros]

I see, you mean the lambda can be called multiple times in both cases, but the same value it returned anyway? Unlike with MemoryCache?

[amit-ezra]

exactly.

[amit-ezra]

and this would be the same with MemoryCache.AddOrGetExisting from .net framework. and by same I mean you would get the same value from all threads (even if lambda was called multiple times)