What are the best practices for using cancellation tokens in programming?

What are cancellation tokens and why are they important?

Cancellation tokens are a way to signal that an operation should be canceled. They are important for managing long-running tasks and improving responsiveness in applications.

How do I implement cancellation tokens in my code?

You can implement cancellation tokens by creating a CancellationTokenSource and passing its token to the method that supports cancellation. When you want to cancel, call Cancel() on the source.

Are there any best practices I should follow?

Yes, always check the token's IsCancellationRequested property regularly in your long-running tasks, and ensure to handle exceptions that may arise from cancellation.

Can you give an example of using cancellation tokens in a real scenario?

Sure! For instance, in a web application, you might use cancellation tokens to cancel a database query if the user navigates away from the page before it completes.