Task vs Thread differences
.net, c#, multithreading, task
Solution
`Thread` is a lower-level concept: if you're directly starting a thread, you know it will be a separate thread, rather than executing on the thread pool etc.
`Task` is more than just an abstraction of "where to run some code" though - it's really just "the promise of a result in the future". So as some different examples:
- `Task.Delay` doesn't need any actual CPU time; it's just like setting a timer to go off in the future
- A task returned by `WebClient.DownloadStringTaskAsync` won't take much CPU time locally; it's representing a result which is likely to spend most of its time in network latency or remote work (at the web server)
- A task returned by `Task.Run()` really is saying "I want you to execute this code separately"; the exact thread on which that code executes depends on a number of factors.
Note that the `Task<T>` abstraction is pivotal to the async support in C# 5.
In general, I'd recommend that you use the higher level abstraction wherever you can: in modern C# code you should rarely need to explicitly start your own thread.
Problem
There are two classes available in .NET: `Task` and `Thread`. - What is the difference between those classes? - When is it better to use `Thread` over `Task` (and vice-versa)?