Rx.NET “gate” operator

Question

[Note: I am using 3.1 if that matters. Also, I've asked this on codereview but no responses so far.]

I need an operator to allow a stream of booleans to act as a gate for another stream (let values pass when the gate stream is true, drop them when it's false). I would normally use Switch for this, but if the source stream is cold it will keep recreating it, which I don't want.

I also want to clean up after myself, so that the result completes if either of the source or the gate complete.

public static IObservable<T> When<T>(this IObservable<T> source, IObservable<bool> gate)
{
    var s = source.Publish().RefCount();
    var g = gate.Publish().RefCount();

    var sourceCompleted = s.TakeLast(1).DefaultIfEmpty().Select(_ => Unit.Default);
    var gateCompleted = g.TakeLast(1).DefaultIfEmpty().Select(_ => Unit.Default);

    var anyCompleted = Observable.Amb(sourceCompleted, gateCompleted);

    var flag = false;
    g.TakeUntil(anyCompleted).Subscribe(value => flag = value);

    return s.Where(_ => flag).TakeUntil(anyCompleted);
}

Besides the overall verbosity, I dislike that I subscribe to the gate even if the result is never subscribed to (in which case this operator should be a no-op). Is there a way to get rid of that subscribe?

I have also tried this implementation, but it's even worse when it comes to cleaning up after itself:

return Observable.Create<T>(
    o =>
    {
        var flag = false;
        gate.Subscribe(value => flag = value);

        return source.Subscribe(
            value =>
            {
                if (flag) o.OnNext(value);
            });
    });

These are the tests I'm using to check the implementation:

[TestMethod]
public void TestMethod1()
{
    var output = new List<int>();

    var source = new Subject<int>();
    var gate = new Subject<bool>();

    var result = source.When(gate);
    result.Subscribe(output.Add, () => output.Add(-1));

    // the gate starts with false, so the source events are ignored
    source.OnNext(1);
    source.OnNext(2);
    source.OnNext(3);
    CollectionAssert.AreEqual(new int[0], output);

    // setting the gate to true will let the source events pass
    gate.OnNext(true);
    source.OnNext(4);
    CollectionAssert.AreEqual(new[] { 4 }, output);
    source.OnNext(5);
    CollectionAssert.AreEqual(new[] { 4, 5 }, output);

    // setting the gate to false stops source events from propagating again
    gate.OnNext(false);
    source.OnNext(6);
    source.OnNext(7);
    CollectionAssert.AreEqual(new[] { 4, 5 }, output);

    // completing the source also completes the result
    source.OnCompleted();
    CollectionAssert.AreEqual(new[] { 4, 5, -1 }, output);
}

[TestMethod]
public void TestMethod2()
{
    // completing the gate also completes the result
    var output = new List<int>();

    var source = new Subject<int>();
    var gate = new Subject<bool>();

    var result = source.When(gate);
    result.Subscribe(output.Add, () => output.Add(-1));

    gate.OnCompleted();
    CollectionAssert.AreEqual(new[] { -1 }, output);
}

Answer 1

Update : This terminates when gate terminates as well. I missed TestMethod2 in the copy/paste:

    return gate.Publish(_gate => source
        .WithLatestFrom(_gate.StartWith(false), (value, b) => (value, b))
        .Where(t => t.b)
        .Select(t => t.value)
        .TakeUntil(_gate.IgnoreElements().Materialize()
    ));

---

This passes your tests TestMethod1 , it doesn't terminate when the gate observable does.

public static IObservable<T> When<T>(this IObservable<T> source, IObservable<bool> gate)
{
    return source
        .WithLatestFrom(gate.StartWith(false), (value, b) => (value, b))
        .Where(t => t.b)
        .Select(t => t.value);
}

Answer 2

This works:

public static IObservable<T> When<T>(this IObservable<T> source, IObservable<bool> gate)
{
    return
        source.Publish(ss => gate.Publish(gs =>
            gs
                .Select(g => g ? ss : ss.IgnoreElements())
                .Switch()
                .TakeUntil(Observable.Amb(
                    ss.Select(s => true).Materialize().LastAsync(),
                    gs.Materialize().LastAsync()))));
}

This passes both tests.

Answer 3

You were on the right track with Observable.Create . You should call the onError and onCompleted from both subscriptions on the observable to properly complete or error it when needed. Also by returning both the IDisposable s within the Create delegate you make sure both subscriptions are properly cleaned up if you intend to dispose the When subscription before either source or gate completes.

    public static IObservable<T> When<T>(this IObservable<T> source, IObservable<bool> gate)
    {
        return Observable.Create<T>(
            o =>
            {
                var flag = false;
                var gs = gate.Subscribe(
                    value => flag = value,
                    e => o.OnError(e),
                    () => o.OnCompleted());

                var ss = source.Subscribe(
                    value =>
                    {
                        if (flag) o.OnNext(value);
                    },
                    e => o.OnError(e), 
                    () => o.OnCompleted());

                return new CompositeDisposable(gs, ss);
            });
    }

A shorter, but much harder to read version using only Rx operators. For cold observables it probably needs a publish/refcount for the source.

    public static IObservable<T> When<T>(this IObservable<T> source, IObservable<bool> gate)
    {
        return gate
            .Select(g => g ? source : source.IgnoreElements())
            .Switch()
            .TakeUntil(source.Materialize()
                             .Where(s => s.Kind == NotificationKind.OnCompleted));
    }