How to make sure a task is done before returning from a function?

I have a decent understanding of how Async/Await works in C#.

I understand that when the await keyword is reached, control is given back to the calling function and that is how asynchronous execution is achieved (if I am wrong here, I would appreciate correction and a better explanation).

However I am not sure as to how I would make sure that an async function has finished executing before returning from a function.

Take the example below:

private static async Task<bool> LoadDataIntoLocalAppFile(ZipArchiveEntry entry, string key)
{
    try
    {
        /* SqLiteAsyncConnection is an instance variable in the class that has this function.*/
        string pathToUse = "localDatabase.db"
        if (SqLiteAsyncConnection != null)
        {
            await SqLiteAsyncConnection.CloseAsync()
                .ContinueWith(x => entry.ExtractToFile(pathToUse, true));
        }
        else
        {
            entry.ExtractToFile(pathToUse, true);
        }
        return true;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        Colsole.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
        return false;
    }
}

In the above code snippet, I want to make sure that my SqLiteAsyncConnection is closed before I replace the data in the .db file with the contents of entry (so that it does not error out). As such I have used ContinueWith (if this is wrong I would appreciate some clarification).

But I also want to ensure that await SqLiteAsyncConnection.CloseAsync().ContinueWith(x => entry.ExtractToFile(pathToUse, true)); finishes its execution before the function returns. That is I want to ensure that this function does not return true inaccurately, and that it does not return true before await SqLiteAsyncConnection.CloseAsync() .ContinueWith(x => entry.ExtractToFile(pathToUse, true)); finishes its execution.

How do I achieve this?

>Solution :

You don’t need the ContinueWith when you have await there. You would use ContinueWith if you don’t use await, it can be seen as a type of callback once the parent task has completed/failed.

await SqLiteAsyncConnection.CloseAsync()
                .ContinueWith(x => entry.ExtractToFile(pathToUse, true));

//can be replaced by

await SqLiteAsyncConnection.CloseAsync();
entry.ExtractToFile(pathToUse, true);

When you hit an await section in your code, your function isn’t done, it doesn’t return true, it gets suspended in a sense and the control is given back to calling thread. Once all your awaits have completed in the function, only then does it return the result.