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I've been developing JavaScript for a few years and I don't understand the fuss about promises at all.
It seems like all I do is change:
api(function(result){
api2(function(result2){
api3(function(result3){
// do work
});
});
});
Which I could use a library like async for anyway, with something like:
api().then(function(result){
api2().then(function(result2){
api3().then(function(result3){
// do work
});
});
});
Which is more code and less readable. I didn't gain anything here, it's not suddenly magically 'flat' either. Not to mention having to convert things to promises.
So, what's the big fuss about promises here?
Promises are not callbacks. A promise represents the future result of an asynchronous operation. Of course, writing them the way you do, you get little benefit. But if you write them the way they are meant to be used, you can write asynchronous code in a way that resembles synchronous code and is much more easy to follow:
api().then(function(result){
return api2();
}).then(function(result2){
return api3();
}).then(function(result3){
// do work
});
Certainly, not much less code, but much more readable.
But this is not the end. Let's discover the true benefits: What if you wanted to check for any error in any of the steps? It would be hell to do it with callbacks, but with promises, is a piece of cake:
api().then(function(result){
return api2();
}).then(function(result2){
return api3();
}).then(function(result3){
// do work
}).catch(function(error) {
//handle any error that may occur before this point
});
Pretty much the same as a try { ... } catch block.
Even better:
api().then(function(result){
return api2();
}).then(function(result2){
return api3();
}).then(function(result3){
// do work
}).catch(function(error) {
//handle any error that may occur before this point
}).then(function() {
//do something whether there was an error or not
//like hiding an spinner if you were performing an AJAX request.
});
And even better: What if those 3 calls to api, api2, api3 could run simultaneously (e.g. if they were AJAX calls) but you needed to wait for the three? Without promises, you should have to create some sort of counter. With promises, using the ES6 notation, is another piece of cake and pretty neat:
Promise.all([api(), api2(), api3()]).then(function(result) {
//do work. result is an array contains the values of the three fulfilled promises.
}).catch(function(error) {
//handle the error. At least one of the promises rejected.
});
Hope you see Promises in a new light now.
Yes, Promises are asynchronous callbacks. They can't do anything that callbacks can't do, and you face the same problems with asynchrony as with plain callbacks.
However, Promises are more than just callbacks. They are a very mighty abstraction, allow cleaner and better, functional code with less error-prone boilerplate.
So what's the main idea?
Promises are objects representing the result of a single (asynchronous) computation. They resolve to that result only once. There's a few things what this means:
Promises implement an observer pattern:
You don't need to know the callbacks that will use the value before the task completes.
Instead of expecting callbacks as arguments to your functions, you can easily return a Promise object
The promise will store the value, and you can transparently add a callback whenever you want. It will be called when the result is available. "Transparency" implies that when you have a promise and add a callback to it, it doesn't make a difference to your code whether the result has arrived yet - the API and contracts are the same, simplifying caching/memoisation a lot.
You can add multiple callbacks easily
Promises are chainable (monadic, if you want):
If you need to transform the value that a promise represents, you map a transform function over the promise and get back a new promise that represents the transformed result. You cannot synchronously get the value to use it somehow, but you can easily lift the transformation in the promise context. No boilerplate callbacks.
If you want to chain two asynchronous tasks, you can use the .then() method. It will take a callback to be called with the first result, and returns a promise for the result of the promise that the callback returns.
Sounds complicated? Time for a code example.
var p1 = api1(); // returning a promise
var p3 = p1.then(function(api1Result) {
var p2 = api2(); // returning a promise
return p2; // The result of p2 …
}); // … becomes the result of p3
// So it does not make a difference whether you write
api1().then(function(api1Result) {
return api2().then(console.log)
})
// or the flattened version
api1().then(function(api1Result) {
return api2();
}).then(console.log)
Flattening does not come magically, but you can easily do it. For your heavily nested example, the (near) equivalent would be
api1().then(api2).then(api3).then(/* do-work-callback */);
If seeing the code of these methods helps understanding, here's a most basic promise lib in a few lines.
What's the big fuss about promises?
The Promise abstraction allows much better composability of functions. For example, next to then for chaining, the all function creates a promise for the combined result of multiple parallel-waiting promises.
Last but not least Promises come with integrated error handling. The result of the computation might be that either the promise is fulfilled with a value, or it is rejected with a reason. All the composition functions handle this automatically and propagate errors in promise chains, so that you don't need to care about it explicitly everywhere - in contrast to a plain-callback implementation. In the end, you can add a dedicated error callback for all occurred exceptions.
Not to mention having to convert things to promises.
That's quite trivial actually with good promise libraries, see How do I convert an existing callback API to promises?
In addition to the already established answers, with ES6 arrow functions Promises turn from a modestly shining small blue dwarf straight into a red giant. That is about to collapse into a supernova:
api().then(result => api2()).then(result2 => api3()).then(result3 => console.log(result3))
As oligofren pointed out, without arguments between api calls you don't need the anonymous wrapper functions at all:
api().then(api2).then(api3).then(r3 => console.log(r3))
And finally, if you want to reach a supermassive black hole level, Promises can be awaited:
async function callApis() {
let api1Result = await api();
let api2Result = await api2(api1Result);
let api3Result = await api3(api2Result);
return api3Result;
}
In addition to the awesome answers above, 2 more points may be added:
1. Semantic difference:
Promises may be already resolved upon creation. This means they guarantee conditions rather than events. If they are resolved already, the resolved function passed to it is still called.
Conversely, callbacks handle events. So, if the event you are interested in has happened before the callback has been registered, the callback is not called.
2. Inversion of control
Callbacks involve inversion of control. When you register a callback function with any API, the Javascript runtime stores the callback function and calls it from the event loop once it is ready to be run.
Refer The Javascript Event loop for an explanation.
With Promises, control resides with the calling program. The .then() method may be called at any time if we store the promise object.
In addition to the other answers, the ES2015 syntax blends seamlessly with promises, reducing even more boilerplate code:
// Sequentially:
api1()
.then(r1 => api2(r1))
.then(r2 => api3(r2))
.then(r3 => {
// Done
});
// Parallel:
Promise.all([
api1(),
api2(),
api3()
]).then(([r1, r2, r3]) => {
// Done
});
Promises are not callbacks, both are programming idioms that facilitate async programming. Using an async/await-style of programming using coroutines or generators that return promises could be considered a 3rd such idiom. A comparison of these idioms across different programming languages (including Javascript) is here: https://github.com/KjellSchubert/promise-future-task
No, Not at all.
Callbacks are simply Functions In JavaScript which are to be called and then executed after the execution of another function has finished. So how it happens?
Actually, In JavaScript, functions are itself considered as objects and hence as all other objects, even functions can be sent as arguments to other functions. The most common and generic use case one can think of is setTimeout() function in JavaScript.
Promises are nothing but a much more improvised approach of handling and structuring asynchronous code in comparison to doing the same with callbacks.
The Promise receives two Callbacks in constructor function: resolve and reject. These callbacks inside promises provide us with fine-grained control over error handling and success cases. The resolve callback is used when the execution of promise performed successfully and the reject callback is used to handle the error cases.
No promises are just wrapper on callbacks
example
You can use javascript native promises with node js
my cloud 9 code link : https://ide.c9.io/adx2803/native-promises-in-node
/**
* Created by dixit-lab on 20/6/16.
*/
var express = require('express');
var request = require('request'); //Simplified HTTP request client.
var app = express();
function promisify(url) {
return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
request.get(url, function (error, response, body) {
if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
resolve(body);
}
else {
reject(error);
}
})
});
}
//get all the albums of a user who have posted post 100
app.get('/listAlbums', function (req, res) {
//get the post with post id 100
promisify('http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/100').then(function (result) {
var obj = JSON.parse(result);
return promisify('http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users/' + obj.userId + '/albums')
})
.catch(function (e) {
console.log(e);
})
.then(function (result) {
res.end(result);
}
)
})
var server = app.listen(8081, function () {
var host = server.address().address
var port = server.address().port
console.log("Example app listening at http://%s:%s", host, port)
})
//run webservice on browser : http://localhost:8081/listAlbums
JavaScript Promises actually use callback functions to determine what to do after a Promise has been resolved or rejected, therefore both are not fundamentally different. The main idea behind Promises is to take callbacks - especially nested callbacks where you want to perform a sort of actions, but it would be more readable.
Promises overview:
In JS we can wrap asynchronous operations (e.g database calls, AJAX calls) in promises. Usually we want to run some additional logic on the retrieved data. JS promises have handler functions which process the result of the asynchronous operations. The handler functions can even have other asynchronous operations within them which could rely on the value of the previous asynchronous operations.
A promise always has of the 3 following states:
pending: starting state of every promise, neither fulfilled nor rejected.
fulfilled: The operation completed successfully.
rejected: The operation failed.
A pending promise can be resolved/fullfilled or rejected with a value. Then the following handler methods which take callbacks as arguments are called:
Promise.prototype.then() : When the promise is resolved the callback argument of this function will be called.
Promise.prototype.catch() : When the promise is rejected the callback argument of this function will be called.
Although the above methods skill get callback arguments they are far superior than using
only callbacks here is an example that will clarify a lot:
Example
function createProm(resolveVal, rejectVal) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
setTimeout(() => {
if (Math.random() > 0.5) {
console.log("Resolved");
resolve(resolveVal);
} else {
console.log("Rejected");
reject(rejectVal);
}
}, 1000);
});
}
createProm(1, 2)
.then((resVal) => {
console.log(resVal);
return resVal + 1;
})
.then((resVal) => {
console.log(resVal);
return resVal + 2;
})
.catch((rejectVal) => {
console.log(rejectVal);
return rejectVal + 1;
})
.then((resVal) => {
console.log(resVal);
})
.finally(() => {
console.log("Promise done");
});
The createProm function creates a promises which is resolved or rejected based on a random Nr after 1 second
If the promise is resolved the first then method is called and the resolved value is passed in as an argument of the callback
If the promise is rejected the first catch method is called and the rejected value is passed in as an argument
The catch and then methods return promises that's why we can chain them. They wrap any returned value in Promise.resolve and any thrown value (using the throw keyword) in Promise.reject. So any value returned is transformed into a promise and on this promise we can again call a handler function.
Promise chains give us more fine tuned control and better overview than nested callbacks. For example the catch method handles all the errors which have occurred before the catch handler.
Promises allows programmers to write simpler and far more readable code than by using callbacks.
In a program, there are steps want to do in series.
function f() {
step_a();
step_b();
step_c();
...
}
There's usually information carried between each step.
function f() {
const a = step_a( );
const b = step_b( a );
const c = step_c( b );
...
}
Some of these steps can take a (relatively) long time, so sometimes you want to do them in parallel with other things. One way to do that is using threads. Another is asynchronous programming. (Both approaches has pros and cons, which won't be discussed here.) Here, we're talking about asynchronous programming.
The simple way to achieve the above when using asynchronous programming would be to provide a callback which is called once a step is complete.
// step_* calls the provided function with the returned value once complete.
function f() {
step_a(
function( a )
step_b(
function( b )
step_c(
...
)
},
)
},
)
}
That's quite hard to read. Promises offer a way to flatten the code.
// step_* returns a promise.
function f() {
step_a()
.then( step_b )
.then( step_c )
...
}
The object returned is called a promise because it represents the future result (i.e. promised result) of the function (which could be a value or an exception).
As much as promises help, it's still a bit complicated to use promises. This is where async and await come in. In a function declared as async, await can be used in lieu of then.
// step_* returns a promise.
async function f()
const a = await step_a( );
const b = await step_b( a );
const c = await step_c( b );
...
}
This is undeniably much much more readable than using callbacks.
This question already has answers here:
How do I return the response from an asynchronous call?
(41 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I have an es6 class, with an init() method responsible for fetching data, transforming it, then update the class's property this.data with newly transformed data.
So far so good.
The class itself has another getPostById() method, to just do what it sounds like. Here is the code for the class:
class Posts {
constructor(url) {
this.ready = false
this.data = {}
this.url = url
}
async init() {
try {
let res = await fetch( this.url )
if (res.ok) {
let data = await res.json()
// Do bunch of transformation stuff here
this.data = data
this.ready = true
return data
}
}
catch (e) {
console.log(e)
}
}
getPostById(id){
return this.data.find( p => p.id === id )
}
}
Straightforward, except I have an async/await mechanism in the init() method.
Now, this code will work correctly:
let allPosts = new Posts('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts')
allPosts.init()
.then( d => console.log(allPosts.getPostById(4)) )
// resulting Object correctly logged in console
but it only gets printed into the console:
How could I use allPosts.getPostById(4) as a return of a function ?
Like:
let myFunc = async () => {
const postId = 4
await allPosts.init() // I need to wait for this to finish before returning
// This is logging correct value
console.log( 'logging: ' + JSON.stringify(allPosts.getPostById( postId ), null, 4) )
// How can I return the RESULT of allPosts.getPostById( postId ) ???
return allPosts.getPostById( postId )
}
myFunc() returns a Promise but not the final value. I have read several related posts on the subject but they all give example of logging, never returning.
Here is a fiddle that includes two ways of handling init(): using Promise and using async/await. No matter what I try, I can't manage to USE the FINAL VALUE of getPostById(id).
The question of this post is: how can I create a function that will RETURN the VALUE of getPostById(id) ?
EDIT:
A lot of good answers trying to explain what Promises are in regards to the main execution loop.
After a lot of videos and other good reads, here is what I understand now:
my function init() correctly returns. However, within the main event loop: it returns a Promise, then it is my job to catch the result of this Promise from within a kinda parallel loop (not a new real thread). In order to catch the result from the parallel loop there are two ways:
use .then( value => doSomethingWithMy(value) )
use let value = await myAsyncFn(). Now here is the foolish hiccup:
await can only be used within an async function :p
thus itself returning a Promise, usable with await which should be embed in an async function, which will be usable with await etc...
This means we cannot really WAIT for a Promise: instead we should catch parallel loop indefinitely: using .then() or async/await.
Thanks for the help !
As for your comment; I'll add it as answer.
The code you write in JavaScript is run on one thread, that means that if your code could actually wait for something it will block any of your other code from getting executed. The event loop of JavaScript is explained very well in this video and if you like to read in this page.
A good example of blocking code in the browser is alert("cannot do anything until you click ok");. Alert blocks everything, the user can't even scroll or click on anything in the page and your code also blocks from executing.
Promise.resolve(22)
.then(x=>alert("blocking")||"Hello World")
.then(
x=>console.log(
"does not resolve untill you click ok on the alert:",
x
)
);
Run that in a console and you see what I mean by blocking.
This creates a problem when you want to do something that takes time. In other frameworks you'd use a thread or processes but there is no such thing in JavaScript (technically there is with web worker and fork in node but that's another story and usually far more complicated than using async api's).
So when you want to make a http request you can use fetch but fetch takes some time to finish and your function should not block (has to return something as fast as possible). This is why fetch returns a promise.
Note that fetch is implemented by browser/node and does run in another thread, only code you write runs in one thread so starting a lot of promises that only run code you write will not speed up anything but calling native async api's in parallel will.
Before promises async code used callbacks or would return an observable object (like XmlHttpRequest) but let's cover promises since you can convert the more traditional code to a promise anyway.
A promise is an object that has a then function (and a bunch of stuff that is sugar for then but does the same), this function takes 2 parameters.
Resolve handler: A function that will be called by the promise when the promise resolves (has no errors and is finished). The function will be passed one argument with the resolve value (for http requests this usually is the response).
Reject handler: A function that will be called by the promise when the promise rejects (has an error). This function will be passed one argument, this is usually the error or reason for rejection (can be a string, number or anything).
Converting callback to promise.
The traditional api's (especially nodejs api's) use callbacks:
traditionalApi(
arg
,function callback(err,value){
err ? handleFail(err) : processValue(value);
}
);
This makes it difficult for the programmer to catch errors or handle the return value in a linear way (from top to bottom). It gets even more impossible to try and do things parallel or throttled parallel with error handling (impossible to read).
You can convert traditional api's to promises with new Promise
const apiAsPromise = arg =>
new Promise(
(resolve,reject)=>
traditionalApi(
arg,
(err,val) => (err) ? reject(err) : resolve(val)
)
)
async await
This is what's called syntax sugar for promises. It makes promise consuming functions look more traditional and easier to read. That is if you like to write traditional code, I would argue that composing small functions is much easier to read. For example, can you guess what this does?:
const handleSearch = search =>
compose([
showLoading,
makeSearchRequest,
processRespose,
hideLoading
])(search)
.then(
undefined,//don't care about the resolve
compose([
showError,
hideLoading
])
);
Anayway; enough ranting. The important part is to understand that async await doesn't actually start another thread, async functions always return a promise and await doesn't actually block or wait. It's syntax sugar for someFn().then(result=>...,error=>...) and looks like:
async someMethod = () =>
//syntax sugar for:
//return someFn().then(result=>...,error=>...)
try{
const result = await someFn();
...
}catch(error){
...
}
}
The examples allways show try catch but you don't need to do that, for example:
var alwaysReject = async () => { throw "Always returns rejected promise"; };
alwaysReject()
.then(
x=>console.log("never happens, doesn't resolve")
,err=>console.warn("got rejected:",err)
);
Any error thrown or await returning a rejected promise will cause the async function to return a rejected promise (unless you try and catch it). Many times it is desirable to just let it fail and have the caller handle errors.
Catching errors could be needed when you want the promise to succeed with a special value for rejected promises so you can handle it later but the promise does not technically reject so will always resolve.
An example is Promise.all, this takes an array of promises and returns a new promise that resolves to an array of resolved values or reject when any one of them rejects. You may just want to get the results of all promises back and filter out the rejected ones:
const Fail = function(details){this.details=details;},
isFail = item => (item && item.constructor)===Fail;
Promise.all(
urls.map(//map array of urls to array of promises that don't reject
url =>
fetch(url)
.then(
undefined,//do not handle resolve yet
//when you handle the reject this ".then" will return
// a promise that RESOLVES to the value returned below (new Fail([url,err]))
err=>new Fail([url,err])
)
)
)
.then(
responses => {
console.log("failed requests:");
console.log(
responses.filter(//only Fail type
isFail
)
);
console.log("resolved requests:");
console.log(
responses.filter(//anything not Fail type
response=>!isFail(response)
)
);
}
);
Your question and the comments suggest you could use a little intuition nudge about the way the event loop works. It really is confusing at first, but after a while it becomes second nature.
Rather than thinking about the FINAL VALUE, think about the fact that you have a single thread and you can't stop it — so you want the FUTURE VALUE -- the value on the next or some future event loop. Everything you write that is not asynchronous is going to happen almost immediately — functions return with some value or undefined immediately. There's nothing you can do about. When you need something asynchronously, you need to setup a system that is ready to deal with the async values when they return sometime in the future. This is what events, callbacks, promises (and async/await) all try to help with. If some data is asynchronous, you simply can not use it in the same event loop.
So what do you do?
If you want a pattern where you create an instance, call init() and then some function that further process it, you simply need to setup a system that does the processing when the data arrives. There are a lot of ways to do this. Here's one way that's a variation on your class:
function someAsync() {
console.log("someAsync called")
return new Promise(resolve => {
setTimeout(() => resolve(Math.random()), 1000)
})
}
class Posts {
constructor(url) {
this.ready = false
this.data = "uninitilized"
this.url = url
}
init() {
this.data = someAsync()
}
time100() {
// it's important to return the promise here
return this.data.then(d => d * 100)
}
}
let p = new Posts()
p.init()
processData(p)
// called twice to illustrate point
processData(p)
async function processData(posts) {
let p = await posts.time100()
console.log("randomin * 100:", p)
}
init() saves the promise returned from someAsync(). someAsync() could be anything that returns a promise. It saves the promise in an instance property. Now you can call then() or use async/await to get the value. It will either immediately return the value if the promise has already resolved or it will deal with it when it has resolved. I called processData(p) twice just to illustrate that it doesn't calle the someAsync() twice.
That's just one pattern. There are a lot more — using events, observables, just using then() directly, or even callbacks which are unfashionable, but still can be useful.
NOTE: Wherever you use await it has to be inside an async function.
Check out the UPDATED FIDDLE
You need to use await myFunc() to get the value you expect from getPostById because an async function always returns a promise.
This sometimes is very frustrating as the whole chain needs to be converted into async functions but that's the price you pay for converting it to a synchronous code, I guess. I am not sure if that can be avoided but am interested in hearing from people who have more experience on this.
Try out the below code in your console by copying over the functions and then accessing final and await final.
NOTE:
An async function CAN contain an await expression.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/async_function
There is no rule that is must have await in order to even declare an async function.
The example below uses an async function without await just to show that an async function always returns a promise.
const sample = async () => {
return 100;
}
// sample() WILL RETURN A PROMISE AND NOT 100
// await sample() WILL RETURN 100
const init = async (num) => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
resolve(num);
});
}
const myFunc = async (num) => {
const k = await init(num);
return k;
}
// const final = myFunc();
// final; This returns a promise
// await final; This returns the number you provided to myFunc
I've been developing JavaScript for a few years and I don't understand the fuss about promises at all.
It seems like all I do is change:
api(function(result){
api2(function(result2){
api3(function(result3){
// do work
});
});
});
Which I could use a library like async for anyway, with something like:
api().then(function(result){
api2().then(function(result2){
api3().then(function(result3){
// do work
});
});
});
Which is more code and less readable. I didn't gain anything here, it's not suddenly magically 'flat' either. Not to mention having to convert things to promises.
So, what's the big fuss about promises here?
Promises are not callbacks. A promise represents the future result of an asynchronous operation. Of course, writing them the way you do, you get little benefit. But if you write them the way they are meant to be used, you can write asynchronous code in a way that resembles synchronous code and is much more easy to follow:
api().then(function(result){
return api2();
}).then(function(result2){
return api3();
}).then(function(result3){
// do work
});
Certainly, not much less code, but much more readable.
But this is not the end. Let's discover the true benefits: What if you wanted to check for any error in any of the steps? It would be hell to do it with callbacks, but with promises, is a piece of cake:
api().then(function(result){
return api2();
}).then(function(result2){
return api3();
}).then(function(result3){
// do work
}).catch(function(error) {
//handle any error that may occur before this point
});
Pretty much the same as a try { ... } catch block.
Even better:
api().then(function(result){
return api2();
}).then(function(result2){
return api3();
}).then(function(result3){
// do work
}).catch(function(error) {
//handle any error that may occur before this point
}).then(function() {
//do something whether there was an error or not
//like hiding an spinner if you were performing an AJAX request.
});
And even better: What if those 3 calls to api, api2, api3 could run simultaneously (e.g. if they were AJAX calls) but you needed to wait for the three? Without promises, you should have to create some sort of counter. With promises, using the ES6 notation, is another piece of cake and pretty neat:
Promise.all([api(), api2(), api3()]).then(function(result) {
//do work. result is an array contains the values of the three fulfilled promises.
}).catch(function(error) {
//handle the error. At least one of the promises rejected.
});
Hope you see Promises in a new light now.
Yes, Promises are asynchronous callbacks. They can't do anything that callbacks can't do, and you face the same problems with asynchrony as with plain callbacks.
However, Promises are more than just callbacks. They are a very mighty abstraction, allow cleaner and better, functional code with less error-prone boilerplate.
So what's the main idea?
Promises are objects representing the result of a single (asynchronous) computation. They resolve to that result only once. There's a few things what this means:
Promises implement an observer pattern:
You don't need to know the callbacks that will use the value before the task completes.
Instead of expecting callbacks as arguments to your functions, you can easily return a Promise object
The promise will store the value, and you can transparently add a callback whenever you want. It will be called when the result is available. "Transparency" implies that when you have a promise and add a callback to it, it doesn't make a difference to your code whether the result has arrived yet - the API and contracts are the same, simplifying caching/memoisation a lot.
You can add multiple callbacks easily
Promises are chainable (monadic, if you want):
If you need to transform the value that a promise represents, you map a transform function over the promise and get back a new promise that represents the transformed result. You cannot synchronously get the value to use it somehow, but you can easily lift the transformation in the promise context. No boilerplate callbacks.
If you want to chain two asynchronous tasks, you can use the .then() method. It will take a callback to be called with the first result, and returns a promise for the result of the promise that the callback returns.
Sounds complicated? Time for a code example.
var p1 = api1(); // returning a promise
var p3 = p1.then(function(api1Result) {
var p2 = api2(); // returning a promise
return p2; // The result of p2 …
}); // … becomes the result of p3
// So it does not make a difference whether you write
api1().then(function(api1Result) {
return api2().then(console.log)
})
// or the flattened version
api1().then(function(api1Result) {
return api2();
}).then(console.log)
Flattening does not come magically, but you can easily do it. For your heavily nested example, the (near) equivalent would be
api1().then(api2).then(api3).then(/* do-work-callback */);
If seeing the code of these methods helps understanding, here's a most basic promise lib in a few lines.
What's the big fuss about promises?
The Promise abstraction allows much better composability of functions. For example, next to then for chaining, the all function creates a promise for the combined result of multiple parallel-waiting promises.
Last but not least Promises come with integrated error handling. The result of the computation might be that either the promise is fulfilled with a value, or it is rejected with a reason. All the composition functions handle this automatically and propagate errors in promise chains, so that you don't need to care about it explicitly everywhere - in contrast to a plain-callback implementation. In the end, you can add a dedicated error callback for all occurred exceptions.
Not to mention having to convert things to promises.
That's quite trivial actually with good promise libraries, see How do I convert an existing callback API to promises?
In addition to the already established answers, with ES6 arrow functions Promises turn from a modestly shining small blue dwarf straight into a red giant. That is about to collapse into a supernova:
api().then(result => api2()).then(result2 => api3()).then(result3 => console.log(result3))
As oligofren pointed out, without arguments between api calls you don't need the anonymous wrapper functions at all:
api().then(api2).then(api3).then(r3 => console.log(r3))
And finally, if you want to reach a supermassive black hole level, Promises can be awaited:
async function callApis() {
let api1Result = await api();
let api2Result = await api2(api1Result);
let api3Result = await api3(api2Result);
return api3Result;
}
In addition to the awesome answers above, 2 more points may be added:
1. Semantic difference:
Promises may be already resolved upon creation. This means they guarantee conditions rather than events. If they are resolved already, the resolved function passed to it is still called.
Conversely, callbacks handle events. So, if the event you are interested in has happened before the callback has been registered, the callback is not called.
2. Inversion of control
Callbacks involve inversion of control. When you register a callback function with any API, the Javascript runtime stores the callback function and calls it from the event loop once it is ready to be run.
Refer The Javascript Event loop for an explanation.
With Promises, control resides with the calling program. The .then() method may be called at any time if we store the promise object.
In addition to the other answers, the ES2015 syntax blends seamlessly with promises, reducing even more boilerplate code:
// Sequentially:
api1()
.then(r1 => api2(r1))
.then(r2 => api3(r2))
.then(r3 => {
// Done
});
// Parallel:
Promise.all([
api1(),
api2(),
api3()
]).then(([r1, r2, r3]) => {
// Done
});
Promises are not callbacks, both are programming idioms that facilitate async programming. Using an async/await-style of programming using coroutines or generators that return promises could be considered a 3rd such idiom. A comparison of these idioms across different programming languages (including Javascript) is here: https://github.com/KjellSchubert/promise-future-task
No, Not at all.
Callbacks are simply Functions In JavaScript which are to be called and then executed after the execution of another function has finished. So how it happens?
Actually, In JavaScript, functions are itself considered as objects and hence as all other objects, even functions can be sent as arguments to other functions. The most common and generic use case one can think of is setTimeout() function in JavaScript.
Promises are nothing but a much more improvised approach of handling and structuring asynchronous code in comparison to doing the same with callbacks.
The Promise receives two Callbacks in constructor function: resolve and reject. These callbacks inside promises provide us with fine-grained control over error handling and success cases. The resolve callback is used when the execution of promise performed successfully and the reject callback is used to handle the error cases.
No promises are just wrapper on callbacks
example
You can use javascript native promises with node js
my cloud 9 code link : https://ide.c9.io/adx2803/native-promises-in-node
/**
* Created by dixit-lab on 20/6/16.
*/
var express = require('express');
var request = require('request'); //Simplified HTTP request client.
var app = express();
function promisify(url) {
return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
request.get(url, function (error, response, body) {
if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
resolve(body);
}
else {
reject(error);
}
})
});
}
//get all the albums of a user who have posted post 100
app.get('/listAlbums', function (req, res) {
//get the post with post id 100
promisify('http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/100').then(function (result) {
var obj = JSON.parse(result);
return promisify('http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users/' + obj.userId + '/albums')
})
.catch(function (e) {
console.log(e);
})
.then(function (result) {
res.end(result);
}
)
})
var server = app.listen(8081, function () {
var host = server.address().address
var port = server.address().port
console.log("Example app listening at http://%s:%s", host, port)
})
//run webservice on browser : http://localhost:8081/listAlbums
JavaScript Promises actually use callback functions to determine what to do after a Promise has been resolved or rejected, therefore both are not fundamentally different. The main idea behind Promises is to take callbacks - especially nested callbacks where you want to perform a sort of actions, but it would be more readable.
Promises overview:
In JS we can wrap asynchronous operations (e.g database calls, AJAX calls) in promises. Usually we want to run some additional logic on the retrieved data. JS promises have handler functions which process the result of the asynchronous operations. The handler functions can even have other asynchronous operations within them which could rely on the value of the previous asynchronous operations.
A promise always has of the 3 following states:
pending: starting state of every promise, neither fulfilled nor rejected.
fulfilled: The operation completed successfully.
rejected: The operation failed.
A pending promise can be resolved/fullfilled or rejected with a value. Then the following handler methods which take callbacks as arguments are called:
Promise.prototype.then() : When the promise is resolved the callback argument of this function will be called.
Promise.prototype.catch() : When the promise is rejected the callback argument of this function will be called.
Although the above methods skill get callback arguments they are far superior than using
only callbacks here is an example that will clarify a lot:
Example
function createProm(resolveVal, rejectVal) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
setTimeout(() => {
if (Math.random() > 0.5) {
console.log("Resolved");
resolve(resolveVal);
} else {
console.log("Rejected");
reject(rejectVal);
}
}, 1000);
});
}
createProm(1, 2)
.then((resVal) => {
console.log(resVal);
return resVal + 1;
})
.then((resVal) => {
console.log(resVal);
return resVal + 2;
})
.catch((rejectVal) => {
console.log(rejectVal);
return rejectVal + 1;
})
.then((resVal) => {
console.log(resVal);
})
.finally(() => {
console.log("Promise done");
});
The createProm function creates a promises which is resolved or rejected based on a random Nr after 1 second
If the promise is resolved the first then method is called and the resolved value is passed in as an argument of the callback
If the promise is rejected the first catch method is called and the rejected value is passed in as an argument
The catch and then methods return promises that's why we can chain them. They wrap any returned value in Promise.resolve and any thrown value (using the throw keyword) in Promise.reject. So any value returned is transformed into a promise and on this promise we can again call a handler function.
Promise chains give us more fine tuned control and better overview than nested callbacks. For example the catch method handles all the errors which have occurred before the catch handler.
Promises allows programmers to write simpler and far more readable code than by using callbacks.
In a program, there are steps want to do in series.
function f() {
step_a();
step_b();
step_c();
...
}
There's usually information carried between each step.
function f() {
const a = step_a( );
const b = step_b( a );
const c = step_c( b );
...
}
Some of these steps can take a (relatively) long time, so sometimes you want to do them in parallel with other things. One way to do that is using threads. Another is asynchronous programming. (Both approaches has pros and cons, which won't be discussed here.) Here, we're talking about asynchronous programming.
The simple way to achieve the above when using asynchronous programming would be to provide a callback which is called once a step is complete.
// step_* calls the provided function with the returned value once complete.
function f() {
step_a(
function( a )
step_b(
function( b )
step_c(
...
)
},
)
},
)
}
That's quite hard to read. Promises offer a way to flatten the code.
// step_* returns a promise.
function f() {
step_a()
.then( step_b )
.then( step_c )
...
}
The object returned is called a promise because it represents the future result (i.e. promised result) of the function (which could be a value or an exception).
As much as promises help, it's still a bit complicated to use promises. This is where async and await come in. In a function declared as async, await can be used in lieu of then.
// step_* returns a promise.
async function f()
const a = await step_a( );
const b = await step_b( a );
const c = await step_c( b );
...
}
This is undeniably much much more readable than using callbacks.
I have a promise that returns data and I want to save that in variables. Is this impossible in JavaScript because of the async nature and do I need to use onResolve as a callback?
Can I somehow use this (e.g. wrap it with async/await):
const { foo, bar } = Promise.then(result => result.data, errorHandler);
// rest of script
instead of this?
Promise.then(result => {
const { foo, bar } = result.data;
// rest of script
}, errorHandler);
Note: Bluebird library is used instead of native implementation, and I can't change from Promise to asnyc/await or Generators.
NO you can't get the data synchronously out of a promise like you suggest in your example. The data must be used within a callback function. Alternatively in functional programming style the promise data could be map()ed over.
If your are OK using async/await (you should it's awesome) then you can write code that looks synchronous yet retain the asynchronicity of a promise (see #loganfsmyth comments).
const { foo, bar } = await iAmAPromise.then(result => result.data);
Overall since you are already using ES6 I assume you are also using a transpiler. In which case you should definitely give async/await a try.
Just be sure to weight in the decision that as today they are not yet a ratified specification.
While you can get a value from an awaited Promise inside an async function (simply because it pauses the function to await a result), you can't ever get a value directly "out" of a Promise and back into the same scope as the code that created the Promise itself.
That's because "out of" would mean trying to take something that exists in the future (the eventually resolved value) and putting it into a context (synchronous variable assignment) that already happened in the past.
That is, time-travel. And even if time-travel were possible, it probably wouldn't be a good coding practice because time travel can be very confusing.:)
In general, if you find yourself feeling like you need to do this, it's good sign that you need to refactor something. Note that what you're doing with "result => result.data" here:
Promise.then(result => result.data, errorHandler);
// rest of script
..is already a case of you working with (literally, mapping over) the value by passing it to a function. But, assuming that "// rest of script" does something important related to this value, you probably want to continue mapping over the now updated value with yet another function that then does something side-effect-y with the value (like display the data on the screen).
Promise
.then(({ data }) => data)
.then(data => doSomethingWithData(data))// rest of script
.catch(errorHandler);
"doSomethingWithData" will be called (if it's ever called) at some unknown point in the future. Which is why it's a good practice to clearly encapsulate all that behavior into a specific function and then hook that function up to the Promise chain.
It's honestly better this way, because it requires you to clearly declare a particular sequence of events that will happen, explicitly separated out from the first run through all of your application code's execution.
To put it another way, imagine this scenario, hypothetically executed in the global, top-level scope:
const { foo, bar } = Promise.then(result => result.data, errorHandler);
console.log(foo);
//...more program
What would you expect to happen there? There are two possibilities, and both of them are bad.
Your entire program would have to halt and wait for the Promise to execute
before it could know what "foo" & "bar" would... nay, might be. (this is
what "await," inside an async function, does in fact do: it pauses
the entire function execution until the value is available or an the error is thrown)
foo and bar would just be undefined (this is what actually
happens), since, as executed synchronously, they'd just be
non-existent properties of the top-level Promise object (which is not itself a "value,"
but rather a quasi-Monadic wrapper around getting an eventual value OR an error) which most
likely doesn't even contain a value yet.
let out; mypromise.then(x => out = x); console.log(out)
Only use this code when
you are debugging by hand,
and you know the promise has already succeeded
Behaviour of this code:
While the promise has not resolved yet, out will be undefined.
Once the promise resolves to a failure, an error is thrown.
When the promise resolves to success, (which may be after the console.log), the value of out will change from undefined to the Promise result — maybe in the middle of what you were doing.
In production code, or really any code that runs without you, the code that uses the Promise result should be inside the .then() callback, and not use some out variable. That way:
your code won't be run too early (when the result is still undefined),
and won't run too late (because you don't need 'I think sleeping for 10 seconds should do it' workarounds),
and won't erroneously run when the promise fails.
I have a solution of getting this value "out" if you will. This is a method at backend for uploading multiple files to AWS S3 which must be dealt asynchronously. I also need the responses from S3, so I need the values out of the Promise:
async function uploadMultipleFiles(files) {
const promises = []; //Creating an array to store promises
for (i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
const fileStream = fs.createReadStream(files[i].path)
const uploadParams = {
Bucket: bucketName,
Body: fileStream,
Key: files[i].filename
}
promises.push(s3.upload(uploadParams).promise()) //pushing each promise instead
//of awaiting, to enable for concurrent uploads.
}
await Promise.all(promises).then(values => {
console.log("values: ", values) //just checking values
result = values; //storing in a different variable
});
return result; //returning that variable
}
The key lines in context with the issue being discussed here are these :
await Promise.all(promises).then(values => {
console.log("values: ", values) //just checking values
res = values; //storing in a different variable
});
return res; //returning that variable
But of course we have to also await in the function that will be calling this :
const result = await uploadMultipleFiles(files);
All you need to do is to extract all you have in your promise by using a .then
yourFunction().then( resp => {
... do what you require here
let var1 = resp.var1;
let var2 = resp.var2;
...
.....
})
yourFunction() should return a Promise
How to Get A Value From A Promise
YES! You can extract value out of a promise!
Do NOT let anyone here say you cannot. Just realize any variable that stores your returned promise value will likely have a short delay. So if you have a JavaScript script page that needs that data outside of the Promise or async-await functions, you may have to create loops, interval timers, or event listeners to wait to grab the value after some time. Because most async-await-promises are REST calls and very fast, that wait would require just a quick while loop!
It is easy! Just set a variable (or create a function) that can access the value inside your async or promise code and store the value in an outside variable, object, array, etc you can check on. Here is a primitive example:
// I just created a simple global variable to store my promise message.
var myDelayedData = '';
// This function is only used to go get data.
// Note I set the delay for 5 seconds below so you can test the delay
const getData = () => {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
setTimeout(() => resolve('my promise data'), 5000);
});
}
// I like to create a second async function to get the data
// from the promise object and save the data to my global variable.
const processData = async () => {
let data = await getData();
// Save the delayed data to my global variable
myDelayedData = data;
}
// Start the data call from the promise.
processData();
// Open up your browser, hit F12 to pull up the browser devtools
// Click the "console" tab and watch the script print out
// the value of the variable with empty message until after
// 5 seconds the variable is assigned to the resolved promise
// and apears in the message!
// THAT IS IT! Your variable is assigned the promise value
// after the delay I set above!
// TEST: But let's test it and see...
var end = setInterval(function(){
console.log("My Result: " + myDelayedData);
if(myDelayedData !== ''){
clearInterval(end);
}
}, 1000);
// You should see this in devtools console.
// Each line below represents a 1 second delay.
My Result:
My Result:
My Result:
My Result: my promise data
Most people seeing this code will say "Then why use a Promise, just make a call for the data, pause, and update your application?" True: The whole point of a Promise is to encapsulate data processes inside the promise and take actions while the rest of the script continues.
But... you may need to output a result outside the Promise. You may have other global processes that need that data because it changes the state of the global application, for example. But at least you know you can get to that Promise data if you needed it.
im using bluebird to chain few phantom related tasks in nodejs. My problem is that the last then in the chain gets the argument passed to the each as its results instead of the results of scrapDomain function
I've been messing with this for 2 days now, help please?
Promise chain:
Promise
.each(domains, function(domain) {
return ensureDir(domain[0])
})
.each(ssHome)
.each(function(domain){
return scrapDomain(domain).then(function(results){
return results
})
})
.then(function(results){
console.log(results)
})
See http://bluebirdjs.com/docs/api/promise.each.html
Resolves to the original array unmodified, this method is meant to be used for side effects. If the iterator function returns a promise or a thenable, then the result of the promise is awaited, before continuing with next iteration.
I think you want to use http://bluebirdjs.com/docs/api/promise.map.html
Use mapSeries which was designed exactly for this:
Promise
.mapSeries(domains, function(domain) {
return ensureDir(domain[0])
})
.mapSeries(ssHome)
.mapSeries(scrapDomain)
.mapSeries(console.log);
Although, personally I wouldn't write that code this way. First, each and mapSeries both execute sequentially, while other functions like map execute the function concurrently.
Second, in this use case each step has to wait for the previous step which is not necessary in your case. Instead, I'd write it like this:
const scrape = Promise.coroutine(d => { // Promise.coroutine is bluebird specific
let dir = ensureDir(d[0]);
let home = yield ssHome(dir);
let results = yield scrapDomain(home);
return results;
});
And then do:
let results = Promise.map(domains, scrape);
Which would let you do:
results.then(items => console.log(items));