system.reactive Getting started with system.reactive Throttling a stream

Example

Let's say you need to implement an automatic search box, but the search operation is somewhat costly, like sending a web request or hitting up a database. You may want to limit the amount of search being done.

For example, the user is typing "C# Reactive Extensions" in the search box :

IObservable<string> TypingSearchText()
{
    return Observable.Create<string>(o =>
    {
        const string SearchText = "C# Reactive Extensions";
        
        var builder = new StringBuilder();
        foreach (var c in SearchText)
        {
            builder.Append(c);
            
            // notify that the search text has been changed
            o.OnNext(builder.ToString());

            // pause between each character to simulate actual typing
            Thread.Sleep(125);
            
            // spent some time to think about the next word to type
            if (c == ' ')
                Thread.Sleep(1000);
        }
        
        o.OnCompleted();

        return () => { /* nothing to dispose here */ };
    });
}

Now, we don't want to perform the search every time the user presses a key. Instead, it will be done whenever the user stops typing longer than half a second :

TypingSearchText()
    // print the changes
    .Do(x => Console.WriteLine("Typing: " + x))
    
    // ignore changes that happens within 500ms of each other
    .Throttle(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(500))
    
    // some costly operation
    .Subscribe(x => Console.WriteLine("Searching: " + x));

Output :

Typing: C
Typing: C#
Typing: C# 
Searching: C# 
Typing: C# R
Typing: C# Re
...
Typing: C# Reactive
Typing: C# Reactive 
Searching: C# Reactive 
Typing: C# Reactive E
Typing: C# Reactive Ex
...
Typing: C# Reactive Extension
Typing: C# Reactive Extensions
Searching: C# Reactive Extensions