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      Promises

      JavaScript Promises for Dummies


      Javascript Promises are not difficult. However, lots of people find it a little bit hard to understand at the beginning. Therefore, I would like to write down the way I understand promises, in a dummy way.

      Understanding Promises

      A Promise in short:

      “Imagine you are a kid. Your mom promises you that she’ll get you a new phone next week.”

      You don’t know if you will get that phone until next week. Your mom can either really buy you a brand new phone, or she doesn’t, because she is not happy :(.

      That is a promise. A promise has 3 states. They are:

      1. Pending: You don’t know if you will get that phone
      2. Fulfilled: Mom is happy, she buys you a brand new phone
      3. Rejected: Mom is unhappy, she doesn’t buy you a phone

      Creating a Promise

      Let’s convert this to JavaScript.

      // ES5: Part 1
      
      var isMomHappy = false;
      
      // Promise
      var willIGetNewPhone = new Promise(
          function (resolve, reject) {
              if (isMomHappy) {
                  var phone = {
                      brand: 'Samsung',
                      color: 'black'
                  };
                  resolve(phone); // fulfilled
              } else {
                  var reason = new Error('mom is not happy');
                  reject(reason); // reject
              }
      
          }
      );
      

      The code is quite expressive in itself.

      Below is how a promise syntax look like normally:

      // promise syntax look like this
      new Promise(function (resolve, reject) { ... } );
      

      Consuming Promises

      Now that we have the promise, let’s consume it.

      // ES5: Part 2
      
      var willIGetNewPhone = ... // continue from part 1
      
      // call our promise
      var askMom = function () {
          willIGetNewPhone
              .then(function (fulfilled) {
                  // yay, you got a new phone
                  console.log(fulfilled);
                   // output: { brand: 'Samsung', color: 'black' }
              })
              .catch(function (error) {
                  // oops, mom don't buy it
                  console.log(error.message);
                   // output: 'mom is not happy'
              });
      };
      
      askMom();
      

      Let’s run the example and see the result!

      Demo: https://jsbin.com/nifocu/1/edit?js,console

      Result

      Chaining Promises

      Promises are chainable.

      Let’s say, you, the kid, promises your friend that you will show them the new phone when your mom buy you one.

      That is another promise. Let’s write it!

      // ES5
      
      // 2nd promise
      var showOff = function (phone) {
          return new Promise(
              function (resolve, reject) {
                  var message="Hey friend, I have a new " +
                      phone.color + ' ' + phone.brand + ' phone';
      
                  resolve(message);
              }
          );
      };
      

      Notes: We can shorthen the above code by written as below:

      // shorten it
      
      // 2nd promise
      var showOff = function (phone) {
          var message="Hey friend, I have a new " +
                      phone.color + ' ' + phone.brand + ' phone';
      
          return Promise.resolve(message);
      };
      

      Let’s chain the promises. You, the kid can only start the showOff promise after the willIGetNewPhone promise.

      // call our promise
      var askMom = function () {
          willIGetNewPhone
          .then(showOff) // chain it here
          .then(function (fulfilled) {
                  console.log(fulfilled);
               // output: 'Hey friend, I have a new black Samsung phone.'
              })
              .catch(function (error) {
                  // oops, mom don't buy it
                  console.log(error.message);
               // output: 'mom is not happy'
              });
      };
      

      That’s how easy to chain the promise.

      Promises are Asynchronous

      Promises are asynchronous. Let’s log a message before and after we call the promise.

      // call our promise
      var askMom = function () {
          console.log('before asking Mom'); // log before
          willIGetNewPhone
              .then(showOff)
              .then(function (fulfilled) {
                  console.log(fulfilled);
              })
              .catch(function (error) {
                  console.log(error.message);
              });
          console.log('after asking mom'); // log after
      }
      

      What is the sequence of expected output? Probably you expect:

      1. before asking Mom
      2. Hey friend, I have a new black Samsung phone.
      3. after asking mom
      

      However, the actual output sequence is:

      1. before asking Mom
      2. after asking mom
      3. Hey friend, I have a new black Samsung phone.
      

      Don’t believe me? Go try it yourself: https://jsbin.com/vepateq/edit?js,console !

      Output

      Why? Because life (or JS) waits for no man.

      You, the kid, wouldn’t stop playing while waiting for your mom promise (the new phone). Don’t you? That’s something we call asynchronous, the code will run without blocking or waiting for the result. Anything that need to wait for promise to proceed, you put that in .then.

      Here is the full example in ES5.

      // ES5: Full example
      
      var isMomHappy = true;
      
      // Promise
      var willIGetNewPhone = new Promise(
          function (resolve, reject) {
              if (isMomHappy) {
                  var phone = {
                      brand: 'Samsung',
                      color: 'black'
                  };
                  resolve(phone); // fulfilled
              } else {
                  var reason = new Error('mom is not happy');
                  reject(reason); // reject
              }
      
          }
      );
      
      // 2nd promise
      var showOff = function (phone) {
          var message="Hey friend, I have a new " +
                      phone.color + ' ' + phone.brand + ' phone';
      
          return Promise.resolve(message);
      };
      
      // call our promise
      var askMom = function () {
          willIGetNewPhone
          .then(showOff) // chain it here
          .then(function (fulfilled) {
                  console.log(fulfilled);
                  // output: 'Hey friend, I have a new black Samsung phone.'
              })
              .catch(function (error) {
                  // oops, mom don't buy it
                  console.log(error.message);
                  // output: 'mom is not happy'
              });
      };
      
      askMom();
      

      Promises in ES5, ES6/2015, ES7/Next

      ES5 – Majority browsers

      The demo code is workable in ES5 environments (all major browsers + NodeJs) if you include Bluebird promise library. It’s because ES5 doesn’t support promises out of the box. Another famous promise library is Q by Kris Kowal.

      ES6 / ES2015 – Modern browsers, NodeJs v6

      The demo code works out of the box because ES6 supports promises natively. In addition, with ES6 functions, we can further simplify the code with fat arrow => and use const and let.

      Here is the full example in ES6 code:

      //_ ES6: Full example_
      
      const isMomHappy = true;
      
      // Promise
      const willIGetNewPhone = new Promise(
          (resolve, reject) => { // fat arrow
              if (isMomHappy) {
                  const phone = {
                      brand: 'Samsung',
                      color: 'black'
                  };
                  resolve(phone);
              } else {
                  const reason = new Error('mom is not happy');
                  reject(reason);
              }
      
          }
      );
      
      // 2nd promise
      const showOff = function (phone) {
          const message="Hey friend, I have a new " +
                      phone.color + ' ' + phone.brand + ' phone';
          return Promise.resolve(message);
      };
      
      // call our promise
      const askMom = function () {
          willIGetNewPhone
              .then(showOff)
              .then(fulfilled => console.log(fulfilled)) // fat arrow
              .catch(error => console.log(error.message)); // fat arrow
      };
      
      askMom();
      

      Notes that all the var are replaced with const. All the function(resolve, reject) has been simplified to (resolve, reject) =>. There are a few benefits come with these changes. Read more on:-

      ES7 – Async Await make the syntax look prettier

      ES7 introduce async and await syntax. It makes the asynchronous syntax look prettier and easier to understand, without the .then and .catch.

      Rewrite our example with ES7 syntax.

      // ES7: Full example
      const isMomHappy = true;
      
      // Promise
      const willIGetNewPhone = new Promise(
          (resolve, reject) => {
              if (isMomHappy) {
                  const phone = {
                      brand: 'Samsung',
                      color: 'black'
                  };
                  resolve(phone);
              } else {
                  const reason = new Error('mom is not happy');
                  reject(reason);
              }
      
          }
      );
      
      // 2nd promise
      async function showOff(phone) {
          return new Promise(
              (resolve, reject) => {
                  var message="Hey friend, I have a new " +
                      phone.color + ' ' + phone.brand + ' phone';
      
                  resolve(message);
              }
          );
      };
      
      // call our promise in ES7 async await style
      async function askMom() {
          try {
              console.log('before asking Mom');
      
              let phone = await willIGetNewPhone;
              let message = await showOff(phone);
      
              console.log(message);
              console.log('after asking mom');
          }
          catch (error) {
              console.log(error.message);
          }
      }
      
      // async await it here too
      (async () => {
          await askMom();
      })();
      

      Why Promises and When to Use Them?

      Why do we need promises? How’s the world look like before promise? Before answering these questions, let’s go back to the fundamental.

      Normal Function vs Async Function

      Let’s take a look at these two example, both example perform addition of two number, one add using normal function, the other add remotely.

      Normal Function to Add Two Numbers

      // add two numbers normally
      
      function add (num1, num2) {
          return num1 + num2;
      }
      
      const result = add(1, 2); // you get result = 3 immediately
      
      Async Function to Add Two numbers
      // add two numbers remotely
      
      // get the result by calling an API
      const result = getAddResultFromServer('http://www.example.com?num1=1&num2=2');
      // you get result  = "undefined"
      

      If you add the numbers with normal function, you get the result immediately. However when you issue a remote call to get result, you need to wait, you can’t get the result immediately.

      Or put it this way, you don’t know if you will get the result because the server might be down, slow in response, etc. You don’t want your entire process to be blocked while waiting for the result.

      Calling APIs, downloading files, reading files are among some of the usual async operations that you’ll perform.

      World Before Promises: Callback

      Must we use promise for asynchronous call? Nope. Prior to Promise, we use callback. Callback is just a function you call when you get the return result. Let’s modify the previous example to accept a callback.

      // add two numbers remotely
      // get the result by calling an API
      
      function addAsync (num1, num2, callback) {
          // use the famous jQuery getJSON callback API
          return $.getJSON('http://www.example.com', {
              num1: num1,
              num2: num2
          }, callback);
      }
      
      addAsync(1, 2, success => {
          // callback
          const result = success; // you get result = 3 here
      });
      

      The syntax looks ok, why do we need promises then?

      What if You Want to Perform Subsequent Async Action?

      Let’s say, instead of just add the numbers one time, we want to add 3 times. In a normal function, we do this:-

      // add two numbers normally
      
      let resultA, resultB, resultC;
      
       function add (num1, num2) {
          return num1 + num2;
      }
      
      resultA = add(1, 2); // you get resultA = 3 immediately
      resultB = add(resultA, 3); // you get resultB = 6 immediately
      resultC = add(resultB, 4); // you get resultC = 10 immediately
      
      console.log('total' + resultC);
      console.log(resultA, resultB, resultC);
      

      How it looks like with callbacks?

      // add two numbers remotely
      // get the result by calling an API
      
      let resultA, resultB, resultC;
      
      function addAsync (num1, num2, callback) {
          // use the famous jQuery getJSON callback API
          // https://api.jquery.com/jQuery.getJSON/
          return $.getJSON('http://www.example.com', {
              num1: num1,
              num2: num2
          }, callback);
      }
      
      addAsync(1, 2, success => {
          // callback 1
          resultA = success; // you get result = 3 here
      
          addAsync(resultA, 3, success => {
              // callback 2
              resultB = success; // you get result = 6 here
      
              addAsync(resultB, 4, success => {
                  // callback 3
                  resultC = success; // you get result = 10 here
      
                  console.log('total' + resultC);
                  console.log(resultA, resultB, resultC);
              });
          });
      });
      

      Demo: https://jsbin.com/barimo/edit?html,js,console

      The syntax is less user friendly. In a nicer term, It looks like a pyramid, but people usually refer this as “callback hell”, because the callback nested into another callback. Imagine you have 10 callbacks, your code will nested 10 times!

      Escape From Callback Hell

      Promises come in to rescue. Let’s look at the promise version of the same example.

      // add two numbers remotely using observable
      
      let resultA, resultB, resultC;
      
      function addAsync(num1, num2) {
          // use ES6 fetch API, which return a promise
          // What is .json()? https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Body/json
          return fetch(`http://www.example.com?num1=${num1}&num2=${num2}`)
              .then(x => x.json()); 
      }
      
      addAsync(1, 2)
          .then(success => {
              resultA = success;
              return resultA;
          })
          .then(success => addAsync(success, 3))
          .then(success => {
              resultB = success;
              return resultB;
          })
          .then(success => addAsync(success, 4))
          .then(success => {
              resultC = success;
              return resultC;
          })
          .then(success => {
              console.log('total: ' + success)
              console.log(resultA, resultB, resultC)
          });
      

      Demo: https://jsbin.com/qafane/edit?js,console

      With promises, we flatten the callback with .then. In a way, it looks cleaner because of no callback nesting. Of course, with ES7 async syntax, we can even further enhance this example, but I leave that to you. 🙂

      New Kid On the Block: Observables

      Before you settle down with promises, there is something that has come about to make it even easier to deal with async data called Observables.

      Observables are lazy event streams which can emit zero or more events, and may or may not finish.source

      Some key differences between promises and observable are:

      Fear not, let look at the same demo written with Observables. In this example, I am using RxJS for the observables.

      let Observable = Rx.Observable;
      let resultA, resultB, resultC;
      
      function addAsync(num1, num2) {
          // use ES6 fetch API, which return a promise
          const promise = fetch(`http://www.example.com?num1=${num1}&num2=${num2}`)
              .then(x => x.json());
      
          return Observable.fromPromise(promise);
      }
      
      addAsync(1,2)
        .do(x => resultA = x)
        .flatMap(x => addAsync(x, 3))
        .do(x => resultB = x)
        .flatMap(x => addAsync(x, 4))
        .do(x => resultC = x)
        .subscribe(x => {
          console.log('total: ' + x)
          console.log(resultA, resultB, resultC)
        });
      

      Demo: https://jsbin.com/dosaviwalu/edit?js,console

      Notes:

      Observables can do more funky stuff easily. For example, delay add function by 3 seconds with just one line of code or retry so you can retry a call a certain number of times.

      ...
      
      addAsync(1,2)
        .delay(3000) // delay 3 seconds
        .do(x => resultA = x)
        ...
      

      Well, let’s talk about Observables in future post. (You may read one of my RxJs post here too!)

      Summary

      Get yourself familiar with callbacks and promises. Understand them and use them. Don’t worry about Observables, just yet. All three can factor into your development depending on the situation.

      That’s it. Hopefully this article smoothen your path to tame the JavaScript promises. Happy coding!



      Source link

      Understanding the Event Loop, Callbacks, Promises, and Async/Await in JavaScript


      The author selected the COVID-19 Relief Fund to receive a donation as part of the Write for DOnations program.

      Introduction

      In the early days of the internet, websites often consisted of static data in an HTML page. But now that web applications have become more interactive and dynamic, it has become increasingly necessary to do intensive operations like make external network requests to retrieve API data. To handle these operations in JavaScript, a developer must use asynchronous programming techniques.

      Since JavaScript is a single-threaded programming language with a synchronous execution model that processes one operation after another, it can only process one statement at a time. However, an action like requesting data from an API can take an indeterminate amount of time, depending on the size of data being requested, the speed of the network connection, and other factors. If API calls were performed in a synchronous manner, the browser would not be able to handle any user input, like scrolling or clicking a button, until that operation completes. This is known as blocking.

      In order to prevent blocking behavior, the browser environment has many Web APIs that JavaScript can access that are asynchronous, meaning they can run in parallel with other operations instead of sequentially. This is useful because it allows the user to continue using the browser normally while the asynchronous operations are being processed.

      As a JavaScript developer, you need to know how to work with asynchronous Web APIs and handle the response or error of those operations. In this article, you will learn about the event loop, the original way of dealing with asynchronous behavior through callbacks, the updated ECMAScript 2015 addition of promises, and the modern practice of using async/await.

      Note: This article is focused on client-side JavaScript in the browser environment. The same concepts are generally true in the Node.js environment, however Node.js uses its own C++ APIs as opposed to the browser’s Web APIs. For more information on asynchronous programming in Node.js, check out How To Write Asynchronous Code in Node.js.

      The Event Loop

      This section will explain how JavaScript handles asynchronous code with the event loop. It will first run through a demonstration of the event loop at work, and will then explain the two elements of the event loop: the stack and the queue.

      JavaScript code that does not use any asynchronous Web APIs will execute in a synchronous manner—one at a time, sequentially. This is demonstrated by this example code that calls three functions that each print a number to the console:

      // Define three example functions
      function first() {
        console.log(1)
      }
      
      function second() {
        console.log(2)
      }
      
      function third() {
        console.log(3)
      }
      

      In this code, you define three functions that print numbers with console.log().

      Next, write calls to the functions:

      // Execute the functions
      first()
      second()
      third()
      

      The output will be based on the order the functions were called—first(), second(), then third():

      Output

      1 2 3

      When an asynchronous Web API is used, the rules become more complicated. A built-in API that you can test this with is setTimeout, which sets a timer and performs an action after a specified amount of time. setTimeout needs to be asynchronous, otherwise the entire browser would remain frozen during the waiting, which would result in a poor user experience.

      Add setTimeout to the second function to simulate an asynchronous request:

      // Define three example functions, but one of them contains asynchronous code
      function first() {
        console.log(1)
      }
      
      function second() {
        setTimeout(() => {
          console.log(2)
        }, 0)
      }
      
      function third() {
        console.log(3)
      }
      

      setTimeout takes two arguments: the function it will run asynchronously, and the amount of time it will wait before calling that function. In this code you wrapped console.log in an anonymous function and passed it to setTimeout, then set the function to run after 0 milliseconds.

      Now call the functions, as you did before:

      // Execute the functions
      first()
      second()
      third()
      

      You might expect with a setTimeout set to 0 that running these three functions would still result in the numbers being printed in sequential order. But because it is asynchronous, the function with the timeout will be printed last:

      Output

      1 3 2

      Whether you set the timeout to zero seconds or five minutes will make no difference—the console.log called by asynchronous code will execute after the synchronous top-level functions. This happens because the JavaScript host environment, in this case the browser, uses a concept called the event loop to handle concurrency, or parallel events. Since JavaScript can only execute one statement at a time, it needs the event loop to be informed of when to execute which specific statement. The event loop handles this with the concepts of a stack and a queue.

      Stack

      The stack, or call stack, holds the state of what function is currently running. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a stack, you can imagine it as an array with “Last in, first out” (LIFO) properties, meaning you can only add or remove items from the end of the stack. JavaScript will run the current frame (or function call in a specific environment) in the stack, then remove it and move on to the next one.

      For the example only containing synchronous code, the browser handles the execution in the following order:

      • Add first() to the stack, run first() which logs 1 to the console, remove first() from the stack.
      • Add second() to the stack, run second() which logs 2 to the console, remove second() from the stack.
      • Add third() to the stack, run third() which logs 3 to the console, remove third() from the stack.

      The second example with setTimout looks like this:

      • Add first() to the stack, run first() which logs 1 to the console, remove first() from the stack.
      • Add second() to the stack, run second().
        • Add setTimeout() to the stack, run the setTimeout() Web API which starts a timer and adds the anonymous function to the queue, remove setTimeout() from the stack.
      • Remove second() from the stack.
      • Add third() to the stack, run third() which logs 3 to the console, remove third() from the stack.
      • The event loop checks the queue for any pending messages and finds the anonymous function from setTimeout(), adds the function to the stack which logs 2 to the console, then removes it from the stack.

      Using setTimeout, an asynchronous Web API, introduces the concept of the queue, which this tutorial will cover next.

      Queue

      The queue, also referred to as message queue or task queue, is a waiting area for functions. Whenever the call stack is empty, the event loop will check the queue for any waiting messages, starting from the oldest message. Once it finds one, it will add it to the stack, which will execute the function in the message.

      In the setTimeout example, the anonymous function runs immediately after the rest of the top-level execution, since the timer was set to 0 seconds. It’s important to remember that the timer does not mean that the code will execute in exactly 0 seconds or whatever the specified time is, but that it will add the anonymous function to the queue in that amount of time. This queue system exists because if the timer were to add the anonymous function directly to the stack when the timer finishes, it would interrupt whatever function is currently running, which could have unintended and unpredictable effects.

      Note: There is also another queue called the job queue or microtask queue that handles promises. Microtasks like promises are handled at a higher priority than macrotasks like setTimeout.

      Now you know how the event loop uses the stack and queue to handle the execution order of code. The next task is to figure out how to control the order of execution in your code. To do this, you will first learn about the original way to ensure asynchronous code is handled correctly by the event loop: callback functions.

      Callback Functions

      In the setTimeout example, the function with the timeout ran after everything in the main top-level execution context. But if you wanted to ensure one of the functions, like the third function, ran after the timeout, then you would have to use asynchronous coding methods. The timeout here can represent an asynchronous API call that contains data. You want to work with the data from the API call, but you have to make sure the data is returned first.

      The original solution to dealing with this problem is using callback functions. Callback functions do not have special syntax; they are just a function that has been passed as an argument to another function. The function that takes another function as an argument is called a higher-order function. According to this definition, any function can become a callback function if it is passed as an argument. Callbacks are not asynchronous by nature, but can be used for asynchronous purposes.

      Here is a syntactic code example of a higher-order function and a callback:

      // A function
      function fn() {
        console.log('Just a function')
      }
      
      // A function that takes another function as an argument
      function higherOrderFunction(callback) {
        // When you call a function that is passed as an argument, it is referred to as a callback
        callback()
      }
      
      // Passing a function
      higherOrderFunction(fn)
      

      In this code, you define a function fn, define a function higherOrderFunction that takes a function callback as an argument, and pass fn as a callback to higherOrderFunction.

      Running this code will give the following:

      Output

      Just a function

      Let’s go back to the first, second, and third functions with setTimeout. This is what you have so far:

      function first() {
        console.log(1)
      }
      
      function second() {
        setTimeout(() => {
          console.log(2)
        }, 0)
      }
      
      function third() {
        console.log(3)
      }
      

      The task is to get the third function to always delay execution until after the asynchronous action in the second function has completed. This is where callbacks come in. Instead of executing first, second, and third at the top-level of execution, you will pass the third function as an argument to second. The second function will execute the callback after the asynchronous action has completed.

      Here are the three functions with a callback applied:

      // Define three functions
      function first() {
        console.log(1)
      }
      
      function second(callback) {
        setTimeout(() => {
          console.log(2)
      
          // Execute the callback function
          callback()
        }, 0)
      }
      
      function third() {
        console.log(3)
      }
      

      Now, execute first and second, then pass third as an argument to second:

      first()
      second(third)
      

      After running this code block, you will receive the following output:

      Output

      1 2 3

      First 1 will print, and after the timer completes (in this case, zero seconds, but you can change it to any amount) it will print 2 then 3. By passing a function as a callback, you’ve successfully delayed execution of the function until the asynchronous Web API (setTimeout) completes.

      The key takeaway here is that callback functions are not asynchronous—setTimeout is the asynchronous Web API responsible for handling asynchronous tasks. The callback just allows you to be informed of when an asynchronous task has completed and handles the success or failure of the task.

      Now that you have learned how to use callbacks to handle asynchronous tasks, the next section explains the problems of nesting too many callbacks and creating a “pyramid of doom.”

      Nested Callbacks and the Pyramid of Doom

      Callback functions are an effective way to ensure delayed execution of a function until another one completes and returns with data. However, due to the nested nature of callbacks, code can end up getting messy if you have a lot of consecutive asynchronous requests that rely on each other. This was a big frustration for JavaScript developers early on, and as a result code containing nested callbacks is often called the “pyramid of doom” or “callback hell.”

      Here is a demonstration of nested callbacks:

      function pyramidOfDoom() {
        setTimeout(() => {
          console.log(1)
          setTimeout(() => {
            console.log(2)
            setTimeout(() => {
              console.log(3)
            }, 500)
          }, 2000)
        }, 1000)
      }
      

      In this code, each new setTimeout is nested inside a higher order function, creating a pyramid shape of deeper and deeper callbacks. Running this code would give the following:

      Output

      1 2 3

      In practice, with real world asynchronous code, this can get much more complicated. You will most likely need to do error handling in asynchronous code, and then pass some data from each response onto the next request. Doing this with callbacks will make your code difficult to read and maintain.

      Here is a runnable example of a more realistic “pyramid of doom” that you can play around with:

      // Example asynchronous function
      function asynchronousRequest(args, callback) {
        // Throw an error if no arguments are passed
        if (!args) {
          return callback(new Error('Whoa! Something went wrong.'))
        } else {
          return setTimeout(
            // Just adding in a random number so it seems like the contrived asynchronous function
            // returned different data
            () => callback(null, {body: args + ' ' + Math.floor(Math.random() * 10)}),
            500,
          )
        }
      }
      
      // Nested asynchronous requests
      function callbackHell() {
        asynchronousRequest('First', function first(error, response) {
          if (error) {
            console.log(error)
            return
          }
          console.log(response.body)
          asynchronousRequest('Second', function second(error, response) {
            if (error) {
              console.log(error)
              return
            }
            console.log(response.body)
            asynchronousRequest(null, function third(error, response) {
              if (error) {
                console.log(error)
                return
              }
              console.log(response.body)
            })
          })
        })
      }
      
      // Execute 
      callbackHell()
      

      In this code, you must make every function account for a possible response and a possible error, making the function callbackHell visually confusing.

      Running this code will give you the following:

      Output

      First 9 Second 3 Error: Whoa! Something went wrong. at asynchronousRequest (<anonymous>:4:21) at second (<anonymous>:29:7) at <anonymous>:9:13

      This way of handling asynchronous code is difficult to follow. As a result, the concept of promises was introduced in ES6. This is the focus of the next section.

      Promises

      A promise represents the completion of an asynchronous function. It is an object that might return a value in the future. It accomplishes the same basic goal as a callback function, but with many additional features and a more readable syntax. As a JavaScript developer, you will likely spend more time consuming promises than creating them, as it is usually asynchronous Web APIs that return a promise for the developer to consume. This tutorial will show you how to do both.

      Creating a Promise

      You can initialize a promise with the new Promise syntax, and you must initialize it with a function. The function that gets passed to a promise has resolve and reject parameters. The resolve and reject functions handle the success and failure of an operation, respectively.

      Write the following line to declare a promise:

      // Initialize a promise
      const promise = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {})
      

      If you inspect the initialized promise in this state with your web browser’s console, you will find it has a pending status and undefined value:

      Output

      __proto__: Promise [[PromiseStatus]]: "pending" [[PromiseValue]]: undefined

      So far, nothing has been set up for the promise, so it’s going to sit there in a pending state forever. The first thing you can do to test out a promise is fulfill the promise by resolving it with a value:

      const promise = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        resolve('We did it!')
      })
      

      Now, upon inspecting the promise, you’ll find that it has a status of fulfilled, and a value set to the value you passed to resolve:

      Output

      __proto__: Promise [[PromiseStatus]]: "fulfilled" [[PromiseValue]]: "We did it!"

      As stated in the beginning of this section, a promise is an object that may return a value. After being successfully fulfilled, the value goes from undefined to being populated with data.

      A promise can have three possible states: pending, fulfilled, and rejected.

      • Pending – Initial state before being resolved or rejected
      • Fulfilled – Successful operation, promise has resolved
      • Rejected – Failed operation, promise has rejected

      After being fulfilled or rejected, a promise is settled.

      Now that you have an idea of how promises are created, let’s look at how a developer may consume these promises.

      Consuming a Promise

      The promise in the last section has fulfilled with a value, but you also want to be able to access the value. Promises have a method called then that will run after a promise reaches resolve in the code. then will return the promise’s value as a parameter.

      This is how you would return and log the value of the example promise:

      promise.then((response) => {
        console.log(response)
      })
      

      The promise you created had a [[PromiseValue]] of We did it!. This value is what will be passed into the anonymous function as response:

      Output

      We did it!

      So far, the example you created did not involve an asynchronous Web API—it only explained how to create, resolve, and consume a native JavaScript promise. Using setTimeout, you can test out an asynchronous request.

      The following code simulates data returned from an asynchronous request as a promise:

      const promise = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        setTimeout(() => resolve('Resolving an asynchronous request!'), 2000)
      })
      
      // Log the result
      promise.then((response) => {
        console.log(response)
      })
      

      Using the then syntax ensures that the response will be logged only when the setTimeout operation is completed after 2000 milliseconds. All this is done without nesting callbacks.

      Now after two seconds, it will resolve the promise value and it will get logged in then:

      Output

      Resolving an asynchronous request!

      Promises can also be chained to pass along data to more than one asynchronous operation. If a value is returned in then, another then can be added that will fulfill with the return value of the previous then:

      // Chain a promise
      promise
        .then((firstResponse) => {
          // Return a new value for the next then
          return firstResponse + ' And chaining!'
        })
        .then((secondResponse) => {
          console.log(secondResponse)
        })
      

      The fulfilled response in the second then will log the return value:

      Output

      Resolving an asynchronous request! And chaining!

      Since then can be chained, it allows the consumption of promises to appear more synchronous than callbacks, as they do not need to be nested. This will allow for more readable code that can be maintained and verified easier.

      Error Handling

      So far, you have only handled a promise with a successful resolve, which puts the promise in a fulfilled state. But frequently with an asynchronous request you also have to handle an error—if the API is down, or a malformed or unauthorized request is sent. A promise should be able to handle both cases. In this section, you will create a function to test out both the success and error case of creating and consuming a promise.

      This getUsers function will pass a flag to a promise, and return the promise:

      function getUsers(onSuccess) {
        return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
          setTimeout(() => {
            // Handle resolve and reject in the asynchronous API
          }, 1000)
        })
      }
      

      Set up the code so that if onSuccess is true, the timeout will fulfill with some data. If false, the function will reject with an error:

      function getUsers(onSuccess) {
        return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
          setTimeout(() => {
            // Handle resolve and reject in the asynchronous API
            if (onSuccess) {
              resolve([
                {id: 1, name: 'Jerry'},
                {id: 2, name: 'Elaine'},
                {id: 3, name: 'George'},
              ])
            } else {
              reject('Failed to fetch data!')
            }
          }, 1000)
        })
      }
      

      For the successful result, you return JavaScript objects that represent sample user data.

      In order to handle the error, you will use the catch instance method. This will give you a failure callback with the error as a parameter.

      Run the getUser command with onSuccess set to false, using the then method for the success case and the catch method for the error:

      // Run the getUsers function with the false flag to trigger an error
      getUsers(false)
        .then((response) => {
          console.log(response)
        })
        .catch((error) => {
          console.error(error)
        })
      

      Since the error was triggered, the then will be skipped and the catch will handle the error:

      Output

      Failed to fetch data!

      If you switch the flag and resolve instead, the catch will be ignored, and the data will return instead:

      // Run the getUsers function with the true flag to resolve successfully
      getUsers(true)
        .then((response) => {
          console.log(response)
        })
        .catch((error) => {
          console.error(error)
        })
      

      This will yield the user data:

      Output

      (3) [{…}, {…}, {…}] 0: {id: 1, name: "Jerry"} 1: {id: 2, name: "Elaine"} 3: {id: 3, name: "George"}

      For reference, here is a table with the handler methods on Promise objects:

      MethodDescription
      then()Handles a resolve. Returns a promise, and calls onFulfilled function asynchronously
      catch()Handles a reject. Returns a promise, and calls onRejected function asynchronously
      finally()Called when a promise is settled. Returns a promise, and calls onFinally function asynchronously

      Promises can be confusing, both for new developers and experienced programmers that have never worked in an asynchronous environment before. However as mentioned, it is much more common to consume promises than create them. Usually, a browser’s Web API or third party library will be providing the promise, and you only need to consume it.

      In the final promise section, this tutorial will cite a common use case of a Web API that returns promises: the Fetch API.

      Using the Fetch API with Promises

      One of the most useful and frequently used Web APIs that returns a promise is the Fetch API, which allows you to make an asynchronous resource request over a network. fetch is a two-part process, and therefore requires chaining then. This example demonstrates hitting the GitHub API to fetch a user’s data, while also handling any potential error:

      // Fetch a user from the GitHub API
      fetch('https://api.github.com/users/octocat')
        .then((response) => {
          return response.json()
        })
        .then((data) => {
          console.log(data)
        })
        .catch((error) => {
          console.error(error)
        })
      

      The fetch request is sent to the https://api.github.com/users/octocat URL, which asynchronously waits for a response. The first then passes the response to an anonymous function that formats the response as JSON data, then passes the JSON to a second then that logs the data to the console. The catch statement logs any error to the console.

      Running this code will yield the following:

      Output

      login: "octocat", id: 583231, avatar_url: "https://avatars3.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=4" blog: "https://github.blog" company: "@github" followers: 3203 ...

      This is the data requested from https://api.github.com/users/octocat, rendered in JSON format.

      This section of the tutorial showed that promises incorporate a lot of improvements for dealing with asynchronous code. But, while using then to handle asynchronous actions is easier to follow than the pyramid of callbacks, some developers still prefer a synchronous format of writing asynchronous code. To address this need, ECMAScript 2016 (ES7) introduced async functions and the await keyword to make working with promises easier.

      Async Functions with async/await

      An async function allows you to handle asynchronous code in a manner that appears synchronous. async functions still use promises under the hood, but have a more traditional JavaScript syntax. In this section, you will try out examples of this syntax.

      You can create an async function by adding the async keyword before a function:

      // Create an async function
      async function getUser() {
        return {}
      }
      

      Although this function is not handling anything asynchronous yet, it behaves differently than a traditional function. If you execute the function, you’ll find that it returns a promise with a [[PromiseStatus]] and [[PromiseValue]] instead of a return value.

      Try this out by logging a call to the getUser function:

      console.log(getUser())
      

      This will give the following:

      Output

      __proto__: Promise [[PromiseStatus]]: "fulfilled" [[PromiseValue]]: Object

      This means you can handle an async function with then in the same way you could handle a promise. Try this out with the following code:

      getUser().then((response) => console.log(response))
      

      This call to getUser passes the return value to an anonymous function that logs the value to the console.

      You will receive the following when you run this program:

      Output

      {}

      An async function can handle a promise called within it using the await operator. await can be used within an async function and will wait until a promise settles before executing the designated code.

      With this knowledge, you can rewrite the Fetch request from the last section using async/await as follows:

      // Handle fetch with async/await
      async function getUser() {
        const response = await fetch('https://api.github.com/users/octocat')
        const data = await response.json()
      
        console.log(data)
      }
      
      // Execute async function
      getUser()
      

      The await operators here ensure that the data is not logged before the request has populated it with data.

      Now the final data can be handled inside the getUser function, without any need for using then. This is the output of logging data:

      Output

      login: "octocat", id: 583231, avatar_url: "https://avatars3.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=4" blog: "https://github.blog" company: "@github" followers: 3203 ...

      Note: In many environments, async is necessary to use await—however, some new versions of browsers and Node allow using top-level await, which allows you to bypass creating an async function to wrap the await in.

      Finally, since you are handling the fulfilled promise within the asynchronous function, you can also handle the error within the function. Instead of using the catch method with then, you will use the try/catch pattern to handle the exception.

      Add the following highlighted code:

      // Handling success and errors with async/await
      async function getUser() {
        try {
          // Handle success in try
          const response = await fetch('https://api.github.com/users/octocat')
          const data = await response.json()
      
          console.log(data)
        } catch (error) {
          // Handle error in catch
          console.error(error)
        }
      }
      

      The program will now skip to the catch block if it receives an error and log that error to the console.

      Modern asynchronous JavaScript code is most often handled with async/await syntax, but it is important to have a working knowledge of how promises work, especially as promises are capable of additional features that cannot be handled with async/await, like combining promises with Promise.all().

      Note: async/await can be reproduced by using generators combined with promises to add more flexibility to your code. To learn more, check out our Understanding Generators in JavaScript tutorial.

      Conclusion

      Because Web APIs often provide data asynchronously, learning how to handle the result of asynchronous actions is an essential part of being a JavaScript developer. In this article, you learned how the host environment uses the event loop to handle the order of execution of code with the stack and queue. You also tried out examples of three ways to handle the success or failure of an asynchronous event, with callbacks, promises, and async/await syntax. Finally, you used the Fetch Web API to handle asynchronous actions.

      For more information about how the browser handles parallel events, read Concurrency model and the event loop on the Mozilla Developer Network. If you’d like to learn more about JavaScript, return to our How To Code in JavaScript series.



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