await while loop in asyncio

January 12, 2022

How to await while loop? I have the following code snippet:

import asyncio
from asyncio.tasks import sleep
import time

running = True

async def f1():
    global running
    print(f"Running: {running}")
    print("f1() started.")

    ### await the while loop below
    while running:
        print(f"Inside while loop")
    ###

    print(f"Running: {running}")
    print("f1() ended")

async def f2():
    global running
    print("f2() started.")
    
    # this should be blocking code
    time.sleep(0.5)
    
    print("f2 ended.")
    running = False

async def main():
    await asyncio.gather(f1(), f2())

asyncio.run(main())

Basically, what I want is:

# 1. Start f1(). f1() has a while loop.
# 2. Start f2().
# 3. Notify f1() to break the while loop.

>Solution :

I guess you have to put in some await asyncio.sleep(0) or so into the while loop. It just has to be some await call that gives others the chance to do something

import asyncio
from asyncio.tasks import sleep
import time

running = True


async def f1():
    global running
    print(f"Running: {running}")
    print("f1() started.")

    ### await the while loop below
    while running:
        print(f"Inside while loop")
        await asyncio.sleep(0)
    ###

    print(f"Running: {running}")
    print("f1() ended")


async def f2():
    global running
    print("f2() started.")

    # this should be blocking code
    time.sleep(0.5)

    print("f2 ended.")
    running = False


async def main():
    await asyncio.gather(f1(), f2())


asyncio.run(main())

that works for me