function first(){
console.log('first')
}
function second(){
console.log('second')
}
let interval = async ()=>{
await setInterval(first,2000)
await setInterval(second,2000)
}
interval();
Imagine that I have this code above.
When I run it, first() and second() will be called at the same time; how do I call second() after first)() returns some data, for example, if first() is done, only then call second()?
Because first() in my code will be working with a big amount of data and if this 2 functions will be calling at the same time, it will be hard for the server.
How do I call second() each time when first() will return some data?
As mentioned above setInterval does not play well with promises if you do not stop it. In case you clear the interval you can use it like:
async function waitUntil(condition) {
return await new Promise(resolve => {
const interval = setInterval(() => {
if (condition) {
resolve('foo');
clearInterval(interval);
};
}, 1000);
});
}
Later you can use it like
const bar = waitUntil(someConditionHere)
You have a few problems:
Promises may only ever resolve once, setInterval() is meant to call the callback multiple times, Promises do not support this case well.
Neither setInterval(), nor the more appropriate setTimeout() return Promises, therefore, awaiting on them is pointless in this context.
You're looking for a function that returns a Promise which resolves after some times (using setTimeout(), probably, not setInterval()).
Luckily, creating such a function is rather trivial:
async function delay(ms) {
// return await for better async stack trace support in case of errors.
return await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
}
With this new delay function, you can implement your desired flow:
function first(){
console.log('first')
}
function second(){
console.log('second')
}
let run = async ()=>{
await delay(2000);
first();
await delay(2000)
second();
}
run();
setInterval doesn't play well with promises because it triggers a callback multiple times, while promise resolves once.
It seems that it's setTimeout that fits the case. It should be promisified in order to be used with async..await:
async () => {
await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(() => resolve(first()), 2000));
await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(() => resolve(second()), 2000));
}
await expression causes async to pause until a Promise is settled
so you can directly get the promise's result without await
for me, I want to initiate Http request every 1s
let intervalid
async function testFunction() {
intervalid = setInterval(() => {
// I use axios like: axios.get('/user?ID=12345').then
new Promise(function(resolve, reject){
resolve('something')
}).then(res => {
if (condition) {
// do something
} else {
clearInterval(intervalid)
}
})
}, 1000)
}
// you can use this function like
testFunction()
// or stop the setInterval in any place by
clearInterval(intervalid)
You could use an IFFE. This way you could escape the issue of myInterval not accepting Promise as a return type.
There are cases where you need setInterval, because you want to call some function unknown amount of times with some interval in between.
When I faced this problem this turned out to be the most straight-forward solution for me. I hope it help someone :)
For me the use case was that I wanted to send logs to CloudWatch but try not to face the Throttle exception for sending more than 5 logs per second. So I needed to keep my logs and send them as a batch in an interval of 1 second. The solution I'm posting here is what I ended up using.
async function myAsyncFunc(): Promise<string> {
return new Promise<string>((resolve) => {
resolve("hello world");
});
}
function myInterval(): void {
setInterval(() => {
void (async () => {
await myAsyncFunc();
})();
}, 5_000);
}
// then call like so
myInterval();
Looked through all the answers but still didn't find the correct one that would work exactly how the OP is asked. This is what I used for the same purpose:
async function waitInterval(callback, ms) {
return new Promise(resolve => {
let iteration = 0;
const interval = setInterval(async () => {
if (await callback(iteration, interval)) {
resolve();
clearInterval(interval);
}
iteration++;
}, ms);
});
}
function first(i) {
console.log(`first: ${i}`);
// If the condition below is true the timer finishes
return i === 5;
}
function second(i) {
console.log(`second: ${i}`);
// If the condition below is true the timer finishes
return i === 5;
}
(async () => {
console.log('start');
await waitInterval(first, 1000);
await waitInterval(second, 1000);
console.log('finish');
})()
In my example, I also put interval iteration count and the timer itself, just in case the caller would need to do something with it. However, it's not necessary
In my case, I needed to iterate through a list of images, pausing in between each, and then a longer pause at the end before re-looping through.
I accomplished this by combining several techniques from above, calling my function recursively and awaiting a timeout.
If at any point another trigger changes my animationPaused:boolean, my recursive function will exit.
const loopThroughImages = async() => {
for (let i=0; i<numberOfImages; i++){
if (animationPaused) {
return;
}
this.updateImage(i);
await timeout(700);
}
await timeout(1000);
loopThroughImages();
}
loopThroughImages();
Async/await do not make the promises synchronous.
To my knowledge, it's just a different syntax for return Promise and .then().
Here i rewrote the async function and left both versions, so you can see what it really does and compare.
It's in fact a cascade of Promises.
// by the way no need for async there. the callback does not return a promise, so no need for await.
function waitInterval(callback, ms) {
return new Promise(resolve => {
let iteration = 0;
const interval = setInterval(async () => {
if (callback(iteration, interval)) {
resolve();
clearInterval(interval);
}
iteration++;
}, ms);
});
}
function first(i) {
console.log(`first: ${i}`);
// If the condition below is true the timer finishes
return i === 5;
}
function second(i) {
console.log(`second: ${i}`);
// If the condition below is true the timer finishes
return i === 5;
}
// async function with async/await, this code ...
(async () => {
console.log('start');
await waitInterval(first, 1000);
await waitInterval(second, 1000);
console.log('finish');
})() //... returns a pending Promise and ...
console.log('i do not wait');
// ... is kinda identical to this code.
// still asynchronous but return Promise statements with then cascade.
(() => {
console.log('start again');
return waitInterval(first, 1000).then(() => {
return waitInterval(second, 1000).then(() => {
console.log('finish again');
});
});
})(); // returns a pending Promise...
console.log('i do not wait either');
You can see the two async functions both execute at the same time.
So using promises around intervals here is not very useful, as it's still just intervals, and promises changes nothing, and make things confusing...
As the code is calling callbacks repeatedly into an interval, this is, i think, a cleaner way:
function first(i) {
console.log(`first: ${i}`);
// If the condition below is true the timer finishes
return i === 5;
}
function second(i) {
console.log(`second: ${i}`);
// If the condition below is true the timer finishes
return i === 5;
}
function executeThroughTime(...callbacks){
console.log('start');
let callbackIndex = 0; // to track current callback.
let timerIndex = 0; // index given to callbacks
let interval = setInterval(() =>{
if (callbacks[callbackIndex](timerIndex++)){ // callback return true when it finishes.
timerIndex = 0; // resets for next callback
if (++callbackIndex>=callbacks.length){ // if no next callback finish.
clearInterval(interval);
console.log('finish');
}
}
},1000)
}
executeThroughTime(first,second);
console.log('and i still do not wait ;)');
Also, this solution execute a callback every secondes.
if the callbacks are async requests that takes more than one sec to resolve, and i can't afford for them to overlap, then, instead of doing iterative call with repetitive interval, i would get the request resolution to call the next request (through a timer if i don't want to harass the server).
Here the "recursive" task is called lTask, does pretty much the same as before, except that, as i do not have an interval anymore, i need a new timer each iteration.
// slow internet request simulation. with a Promise, could be a callback.
function simulateAsync1(i) {
console.log(`first pending: ${i}`);
return new Promise((resolve) =>{
setTimeout(() => resolve('got that first big data'), Math.floor(Math.random()*1000)+ 1000);//simulate request that last between 1 and 2 sec.
}).then((result) =>{
console.log(`first solved: ${i} ->`, result);
return i==2;
});
}
// slow internet request simulation. with a Promise, could be a callback.
function simulateAsync2(i) {
console.log(`second pending: ${i}`);
return new Promise((resolve) =>{
setTimeout(() => resolve('got that second big data'), Math.floor(Math.random()*1000) + 1000);//simulate request that last between 1 and 2 sec.
}).then((result) =>{ // promise is resolved
console.log(`second solved: ${i} ->`,result);
return i==4; // return a promise
});
}
function executeThroughTime(...asyncCallbacks){
console.log('start');
let callbackIndex = 0;
let timerIndex = 0;
let lPreviousTime = Date.now();
let lTask = () => { // timeout callback.
asyncCallbacks[callbackIndex](timerIndex++).then((result) => { // the setTimeout for the next task is set when the promise is solved.
console.log('result',result)
if (result) { // current callback is done.
timerIndex = 0;
if (++callbackIndex>=asyncCallbacks.length){//are all callbacks done ?
console.log('finish');
return;// its over
}
}
console.log('time elapsed since previous call',Date.now() - lPreviousTime);
lPreviousTime = Date.now();
//console.log('"wait" 1 sec (but not realy)');
setTimeout(lTask,1000);//redo task after 1 sec.
//console.log('i do not wait');
});
}
lTask();// no need to set a timer for first call.
}
executeThroughTime(simulateAsync1,simulateAsync2);
console.log('i do not wait');
Next step would be to empty a fifo with the interval, and fill it with web request promises...
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
const promise = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const timeout = Math.random() * 1000;
setTimeout(() => {
console.log(i);
}, timeout);
});
// TODO: Chain this promise to the previous one (maybe without having it running?)
}
The above will give the following random output:
6
9
4
8
5
1
7
2
3
0
The task is simple: Make sure each promise runs only after the other one (.then()).
For some reason, I couldn't find a way to do it.
I tried generator functions (yield), tried simple functions that return a promise, but at the end of the day it always comes down to the same problem: The loop is synchronous.
With async I'd simply use async.series().
How do you solve it?
As you already hinted in your question, your code creates all promises synchronously. Instead they should only be created at the time the preceding one resolves.
Secondly, each promise that is created with new Promise needs to be resolved with a call to resolve (or reject). This should be done when the timer expires. That will trigger any then callback you would have on that promise. And such a then callback (or await) is a necessity in order to implement the chain.
With those ingredients, there are several ways to perform this asynchronous chaining:
With a for loop that starts with an immediately resolving promise
With Array#reduce that starts with an immediately resolving promise
With a function that passes itself as resolution callback
With ECMAScript2017's async / await syntax
With ECMAScript2020's for await...of syntax
But let me first introduce a very useful, generic function.
Promisfying setTimeout
Using setTimeout is fine, but we actually need a promise that resolves when the timer expires. So let's create such a function: this is called promisifying a function, in this case we will promisify setTimeout. It will improve the readability of the code, and can be used for all of the above options:
const delay = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
See a snippet and comments for each of the options below.
1. With for
You can use a for loop, but you must make sure it doesn't create all promises synchronously. Instead you create an initial immediately resolving promise, and then chain new promises as the previous ones resolve:
const delay = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
for (let i = 0, p = Promise.resolve(); i < 10; i++) {
p = p.then(() => delay(Math.random() * 1000))
.then(() => console.log(i));
}
So this code creates one long chain of then calls. The variable p only serves to not lose track of that chain, and allow a next iteration of the loop to continue on the same chain. The callbacks will start executing after the synchronous loop has completed.
It is important that the then-callback returns the promise that delay() creates: this will ensure the asynchronous chaining.
2. With reduce
This is just a more functional approach to the previous strategy. You create an array with the same length as the chain you want to execute, and start out with an immediately resolving promise:
const delay = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
[...Array(10)].reduce( (p, _, i) =>
p.then(() => delay(Math.random() * 1000))
.then(() => console.log(i))
, Promise.resolve() );
This is probably more useful when you actually have an array with data to be used in the promises.
3. With a function passing itself as resolution-callback
Here we create a function and call it immediately. It creates the first promise synchronously. When it resolves, the function is called again:
const delay = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
(function loop(i) {
if (i >= 10) return; // all done
delay(Math.random() * 1000).then(() => {
console.log(i);
loop(i+1);
});
})(0);
This creates a function named loop, and at the very end of the code you can see it gets called immediately with argument 0. This is the counter, and the i argument. The function will create a new promise if that counter is still below 10, otherwise the chaining stops.
When delay() resolves, it will trigger the then callback which will call the function again.
4. With async/await
Modern JS engines support this syntax:
const delay = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
(async function loop() {
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
await delay(Math.random() * 1000);
console.log(i);
}
})();
It may look strange, as it seems like the promises are created synchronously, but in reality the async function returns when it executes the first await. Every time an awaited promise resolves, the function's running context is restored, and proceeds after the await, until it encounters the next one, and so it continues until the loop finishes.
5. With for await...of
With EcmaScript 2020, the for await...of found its way to modern JavaScript engines. Although it does not really reduce code in this case, it allows to isolate the definition of the random interval chain from the actual iteration of it:
const delay = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
async function * randomDelays(count, max) {
for (let i = 0; i < count; i++) yield delay(Math.random() * max).then(() => i);
}
(async function loop() {
for await (let i of randomDelays(10, 1000)) console.log(i);
})();
You can use async/await for this. I would explain more, but there's nothing really to it. It's just a regular for loop but I added the await keyword before the construction of your Promise
What I like about this is your Promise can resolve a normal value instead of having a side effect like your code (or other answers here) include. This gives you powers like in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past where you can affect things in both the Light World and the Dark World – ie, you can easily work with data before/after the Promised data is available without having to resort to deeply nested functions, other unwieldy control structures, or stupid IIFEs.
// where DarkWorld is in the scary, unknown future
// where LightWorld is the world we saved from Ganondorf
LightWorld ... await DarkWorld
So here's what that will look like ...
async function someProcedure (n) {
for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
const t = Math.random() * 1000
const x = await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, t, i))
console.log (i, x)
}
return 'done'
}
someProcedure(10)
.then(console.log)
.catch(console.error)
0 0
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7
8 8
9 9
done
See how we don't have to deal with that bothersome .then call within our procedure? And async keyword will automatically ensure that a Promise is returned, so we can chain a .then call on the returned value. This sets us up for great success: run the sequence of n Promises, then do something important – like display a success/error message.
Based on the excellent answer by trincot, I wrote a reusable function that accepts a handler to run over each item in an array. The function itself returns a promise that allows you to wait until the loop has finished and the handler function that you pass may also return a promise.
loop(items, handler) : Promise
It took me some time to get it right, but I believe the following code will be usable in a lot of promise-looping situations.
Copy-paste ready code:
// SEE https://stackoverflow.com/a/46295049/286685
const loop = (arr, fn, busy, err, i=0) => {
const body = (ok,er) => {
try {const r = fn(arr[i], i, arr); r && r.then ? r.then(ok).catch(er) : ok(r)}
catch(e) {er(e)}
}
const next = (ok,er) => () => loop(arr, fn, ok, er, ++i)
const run = (ok,er) => i < arr.length ? new Promise(body).then(next(ok,er)).catch(er) : ok()
return busy ? run(busy,err) : new Promise(run)
}
Usage
To use it, call it with the array to loop over as the first argument and the handler function as the second. Do not pass parameters for the third, fourth and fifth arguments, they are used internally.
const loop = (arr, fn, busy, err, i=0) => {
const body = (ok,er) => {
try {const r = fn(arr[i], i, arr); r && r.then ? r.then(ok).catch(er) : ok(r)}
catch(e) {er(e)}
}
const next = (ok,er) => () => loop(arr, fn, ok, er, ++i)
const run = (ok,er) => i < arr.length ? new Promise(body).then(next(ok,er)).catch(er) : ok()
return busy ? run(busy,err) : new Promise(run)
}
const items = ['one', 'two', 'three']
loop(items, item => {
console.info(item)
})
.then(() => console.info('Done!'))
Advanced use cases
Let's look at the handler function, nested loops and error handling.
handler(current, index, all)
The handler gets passed 3 arguments. The current item, the index of the current item and the complete array being looped over. If the handler function needs to do async work, it can return a promise and the loop function will wait for the promise to resolve before starting the next iteration. You can nest loop invocations and all works as expected.
const loop = (arr, fn, busy, err, i=0) => {
const body = (ok,er) => {
try {const r = fn(arr[i], i, arr); r && r.then ? r.then(ok).catch(er) : ok(r)}
catch(e) {er(e)}
}
const next = (ok,er) => () => loop(arr, fn, ok, er, ++i)
const run = (ok,er) => i < arr.length ? new Promise(body).then(next(ok,er)).catch(er) : ok()
return busy ? run(busy,err) : new Promise(run)
}
const tests = [
[],
['one', 'two'],
['A', 'B', 'C']
]
loop(tests, (test, idx, all) => new Promise((testNext, testFailed) => {
console.info('Performing test ' + idx)
return loop(test, (testCase) => {
console.info(testCase)
})
.then(testNext)
.catch(testFailed)
}))
.then(() => console.info('All tests done'))
Error handling
Many promise-looping examples I looked at break down when an exception occurs. Getting this function to do the right thing was pretty tricky, but as far as I can tell it is working now. Make sure to add a catch handler to any inner loops and invoke the rejection function when it happens. E.g.:
const loop = (arr, fn, busy, err, i=0) => {
const body = (ok,er) => {
try {const r = fn(arr[i], i, arr); r && r.then ? r.then(ok).catch(er) : ok(r)}
catch(e) {er(e)}
}
const next = (ok,er) => () => loop(arr, fn, ok, er, ++i)
const run = (ok,er) => i < arr.length ? new Promise(body).then(next(ok,er)).catch(er) : ok()
return busy ? run(busy,err) : new Promise(run)
}
const tests = [
[],
['one', 'two'],
['A', 'B', 'C']
]
loop(tests, (test, idx, all) => new Promise((testNext, testFailed) => {
console.info('Performing test ' + idx)
loop(test, (testCase) => {
if (idx == 2) throw new Error()
console.info(testCase)
})
.then(testNext)
.catch(testFailed) // <--- DON'T FORGET!!
}))
.then(() => console.error('Oops, test should have failed'))
.catch(e => console.info('Succesfully caught error: ', e))
.then(() => console.info('All tests done'))
UPDATE: NPM package
Since writing this answer, I turned the above code in an NPM package.
for-async
Install
npm install --save for-async
Import
var forAsync = require('for-async'); // Common JS, or
import forAsync from 'for-async';
Usage (async)
var arr = ['some', 'cool', 'array'];
forAsync(arr, function(item, idx){
return new Promise(function(resolve){
setTimeout(function(){
console.info(item, idx);
// Logs 3 lines: `some 0`, `cool 1`, `array 2`
resolve(); // <-- signals that this iteration is complete
}, 25); // delay 25 ms to make async
})
})
See the package readme for more details.
If you are limited to ES6, the best option is Promise all. Promise.all(array) also returns an array of promises after successfully executing all the promises in array argument.
Suppose, if you want to update many student records in the database, the following code demonstrates the concept of Promise.all in such case-
let promises = students.map((student, index) => {
//where students is a db object
student.rollNo = index + 1;
student.city = 'City Name';
//Update whatever information on student you want
return student.save();
});
Promise.all(promises).then(() => {
//All the save queries will be executed when .then is executed
//You can do further operations here after as all update operations are completed now
});
Map is just an example method for loop. You can also use for or forin or forEach loop. So the concept is pretty simple, start the loop in which you want to do bulk async operations. Push every such async operation statement in an array declared outside the scope of that loop. After the loop completes, execute the Promise all statement with the prepared array of such queries/promises as argument.
The basic concept is that the javascript loop is synchronous whereas database call is async and we use push method in loop that is also sync. So, the problem of asynchronous behavior doesn't occur inside the loop.
here's my 2 cents worth:
resuable function forpromise()
emulates a classic for loop
allows for early exit based on internal logic, returning a value
can collect an array of results passed into resolve/next/collect
defaults to start=0,increment=1
exceptions thrown inside loop are caught and passed to .catch()
function forpromise(lo, hi, st, res, fn) {
if (typeof res === 'function') {
fn = res;
res = undefined;
}
if (typeof hi === 'function') {
fn = hi;
hi = lo;
lo = 0;
st = 1;
}
if (typeof st === 'function') {
fn = st;
st = 1;
}
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
(function loop(i) {
if (i >= hi) return resolve(res);
const promise = new Promise(function(nxt, brk) {
try {
fn(i, nxt, brk);
} catch (ouch) {
return reject(ouch);
}
});
promise.
catch (function(brkres) {
hi = lo - st;
resolve(brkres)
}).then(function(el) {
if (res) res.push(el);
loop(i + st)
});
})(lo);
});
}
//no result returned, just loop from 0 thru 9
forpromise(0, 10, function(i, next) {
console.log("iterating:", i);
next();
}).then(function() {
console.log("test result 1", arguments);
//shortform:no result returned, just loop from 0 thru 4
forpromise(5, function(i, next) {
console.log("counting:", i);
next();
}).then(function() {
console.log("test result 2", arguments);
//collect result array, even numbers only
forpromise(0, 10, 2, [], function(i, collect) {
console.log("adding item:", i);
collect("result-" + i);
}).then(function() {
console.log("test result 3", arguments);
//collect results, even numbers, break loop early with different result
forpromise(0, 10, 2, [], function(i, collect, break_) {
console.log("adding item:", i);
if (i === 8) return break_("ending early");
collect("result-" + i);
}).then(function() {
console.log("test result 4", arguments);
// collect results, but break loop on exception thrown, which we catch
forpromise(0, 10, 2, [], function(i, collect, break_) {
console.log("adding item:", i);
if (i === 4) throw new Error("failure inside loop");
collect("result-" + i);
}).then(function() {
console.log("test result 5", arguments);
}).
catch (function(err) {
console.log("caught in test 5:[Error ", err.message, "]");
});
});
});
});
});
In ES6, you should use 'for await':
(async () => {
for await (const num of asyncIterable) {
console.log(num);
}
// My action here
})();
For more information, see this for await...of.
I see the previous answers and feel confused. And I coded the following by the answers' inspiration. I think its logic is more obvious, I call the function to replace original for loop:
async function pointToCountry(world, data) { // Data is for loop array
if (data.length > 0) { // For condition
const da = data.shift(); // Get current data and modified data one row code
// Some business logic
msg = da.info
pointofView(world, da);
// Await the current task
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(_ => {
r() // Resolve and finish the current task
}, 5000))
// Call itself and enter the next loop
pointToCountry(world, data)
} else { // Business logic after all tasks
pointofView(world, { longitude: 0, latitude: 0 });
world.controls().autoRotate = true;
}
}
// This is my main function - calculate all project by city
const projectCity = async (req, res, next) => {
try {
let record = [];
let cityList = await Cityodel.find({active:true});
for (let j = 0; j < cityList.length; j++) {
let arr = [];
let projectList = await getProduct(cityList[j]._id)
arr.push({
_id:cityList[j]._id,
name:cityList[j].name,
projectList:projectList
})
record.push(arr);
}
return res.status(200).send({
status: CONSTANT.REQUESTED_CODES.SUCCESS,
result: record });
} catch (error) {
return res.status(400).json(UTILS.errorHandler(error));
}
};
async function getProduct(city){
let projectList = await ProjectModel.find({city:city});
return projectList;
}
I've created a snippet in Angular that loops a promise function indefinitely. You can start it, stop it, or restart it.
You basically need to recursively call the same method and await it's current process like so:
async autoloop(): Promise<void> {
if(this.running){
await this.runMe();
await this.autoloop();
}
return Promise.resolve();
}
JavaScript:
import { Component } from '#angular/core';
#Component({
selector: 'my-app',
templateUrl: './app.component.html',
styleUrls: ['./app.component.css'],
})
export class AppComponent {
messages: string[] = [];
counter = 1;
running = false;
constructor() {
this.start();
}
onClick(): void {
this.running = !this.running;
if(this.running){
this.start();
}
else{
this.stop();
}
}
async onRestartClick(): Promise<void>{
await this.stop();
this.messages = [];
this.counter = 1;
this.start();
}
start(): void{
this.running = true;
this.autoloop();
}
async stop(): Promise<void>{
this.running = false;
await this.delay(1000);
}
async autoloop(): Promise<void> {
if(this.running){
await this.runMe();
await this.autoloop();
}
return Promise.resolve();
}
async runMe(): Promise<void> {
await this.delay(1000);
if(this.running){
this.messages.push(`Message ${this.counter++}`);
}
return Promise.resolve();
}
async delay(ms: number) {
await new Promise<void>((resolve) => setTimeout(() => resolve(), ms));
}
}
Html:
<h1>Endless looping a promise every 1 second</h1>
<button (click)="onClick()">Start / stop</button>
<button (click)="onRestartClick()">Restart</button>
<p *ngFor="let message of messages">
{{message}}
</p>
Lets say I want to run multiple timer functions, one after the other i.e firstly one function runs for 5 mins then after the completion of the first countdown, another timer begins to run for another 2 mins.
I implemented the timer function as below
function timer(count) {
console.log(count)
let counter = setInterval(() => {
count = count - 1;
if (count < 0) {
clearInterval(counter);
return;
}
console.log(count)
}, 1000);
}
Then when I call this function twice with different arguments as
timer(15);
timer(5);
I get the output as
15
5
14
4
13
3
11
1
10
0
9
8
.
.
0
However my desired output is
15
14
.
.
2
1
0
5
4
3
2
1
0
The problem is that your timer function immediately starts a timer. Timers are asynchronous, so when you call it twice, you just start two timers immediately and they run in parallel.
If you want something to happen after one is finished, then you have to explicitly say so. You have two options:
Callback
This is slightly "older" style of dealing with async code. You call a function that will do something later and then give it a function as a parameter for what to do after it's done:
function timer(count, callback = () => {}) { //<-- take callback
//if callback is not supplied, it's going to be an empty function
console.log(count)
let counter = setInterval(() => {
count = count - 1;
if (count < 0) {
clearInterval(counter);
callback(); //<-- run callback after this timer is finished
return;
}
console.log(count)
}, 1000);
}
//run a timer for 15 then a timer for 5
timer(15, () => timer(5));
This works but excessive use of callbacks can lead to what's known as callback hell. The example here is prone to it as well, for example if you want to run a timer for 5, then for 4, then for 3, then for 2, then for 1, you end up with this:
timer(5,
() => timer(4,
() => timer(3,
() => timer(2,
() => timer(1)
)
)
)
);
Or in one line (for fun):
timer(5, () => timer(4, () => timer(3, () => timer(2, () => timer(1)))));
Promise
Promises are a newer way of handling async operations and help keep the code cleaner.
function timer(count) {
console.log(count)
return new Promise(resolve => { //return a Promise
let counter = setInterval(() => {
count = count - 1;
if (count < 0) {
clearInterval(counter);
resolve(); //it is resolved when the count finishes
return;
}
console.log(count)
}, 1000);
});
}
//run a timer for 15 then a timer for 5
timer(15)
.then(() => timer(5));
One thing Promises help out is the callback hell, now if you want to run a timer for 5, then for 4, then for 3, then for 2, then for 1, you get a much more reasonable code:
timer(5)
.then(() => timer(4))
.then(() => timer(3))
.then(() => timer(2))
.then(() => timer(1));
No more nesting.
async/await
This is actually Promises again. But wearing a disguise. If a function returns a Promise, you can await it which waits until the Promise is resolved, then executes the next lines of code. You can only use await inside an async function, however since await actually transforms your code to a Promise behind the scenes. Functionally, there is little difference but you can just structure your code differently:
function timer(count) {
console.log(count)
return new Promise(resolve => { //return a Promise
let counter = setInterval(() => {
count = count - 1;
if (count < 0) {
clearInterval(counter);
resolve(); //it is resolved when the count finishes
return;
}
console.log(count)
}, 1000);
});
}
//run a timer for 15 then a timer for 5
async function main() { //you can only use `await` in async funcions
await timer(15);
await timer(5);
}
/* the above will actually be transformed behind the scenes into:
timer(15)
.then(() => timer(5));
*/
main();
You have to wait for the first call to finish before doing the second call. An easy way to do that is by wrapping the setInterval call with a Promise and call resolve when the counter reaches 0.
Using Promise (ES6 but runs on most browsers, needs Polyfill for IE)
timer(15).then(timer.bind(0, 5));
function timer(count) {
console.log(count);
return new Promise(function(resolve) {
var intervalID = setInterval(function() {
count = count - 1;
if (count < 0) {
clearInterval(intervalID);
resolve();
return;
}
console.log(count);
}, 1000);
});
}
Using async and await (ES7)
(async function() {
await timer(15);
await timer(5);
})();
async function timer(count) {
console.log(count);
return new Promise(resolve => {
let intervalID = setInterval(() => {
count = count - 1;
if (count < 0) return resolve(), clearInterval(intervalID);
console.log(count);
}, 1000);
});
}
The best way to work with async stuff in modern javascript are promises and async/await. But because there is no default way to wait we need to write it ourself. Thats pretty simple tho:
const wait = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
Now we can use this to write your timer with async/await and make it return a Promise:
async function timer(count) {
for(let i = count; i > 0; i--) {
await wait(1000);
console.log(i);
}
}
And not its easy to use timer multiple times in an async function:
await timer(15);
await timer(5);
So the full code is:
const wait = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
async function timer(count) {
for(let i = count; i > 0; i--) {
await wait(1000);
console.log(i);
}
}
async function multipleTimers() {
await timer(15);
await timer(5);
}
multipleTimers();
It appears you wanted the second timer function to be executed only when all the intervals from the first one are completed. This is absolutely not what you implemented. As it is, the first function is called, which sets the interval, and finishes. The main code is not interrupted by the setting of the interval, so it will simply keep executing, calling the second timer function.
According with your desired output, you will certainly need an async function, to know when the first interval is done executing. Here is what you can try:
function timer(count) {
return new Promise(resolve => {
console.log(count)
let counter = setInterval(() => {
count = count - 1;
if (count < 0) {
clearInterval(counter);
resolve();
return;
}
console.log(count)
}, 1000);
}
}
timer(15).then(() => {
timer(5);
});
If you are already in an async function, the last bit can also be written as:
await timer(15);
timer(5);
You should give a read about async functions. It's really worth it.
I have an array with almost 2 millions of Facebook idSender, and I want to itearate over it, calling a Facebook API for each one of them.
Now, due to the asynchronicity, if I launch a simple for loop, Facebook would return me a rate limit exceed error after 4-5 minutes.
After some attempts I found out that the ideal delay to avoid rate limit is 20 milliseconds.
So I tried this solution: I wrapped my function in a Promise, and I used setTimeout to set a delay.
async function asyncLoop(values) {
var prm = await new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
setTimeout(function() {
for (var i=0; i<values.length; i++) {
check(values[i].idSender, values[i].iscrizione, values[i].id_sito)
if(checked == values.length) {
resolve()
}
}
},20);
});
return prm;
}
asyncLoop(idSenderArray)
but this solution it's not working, and I'm also aware it's almost never a good idea using setTimeout fuction to manipulate asynchronicity in Javascript, in fact I can't even say what exactly it's happening there.
Any suggestion for possible modifies to my function? Any idea on a totally new implementation that could work?
Thanks
Just await a time inside the for loop:
const timer = ms => new Promise(res => setTimeout(res, ms));
async function asyncLoop(values) {
for (var i = 0; i < values.length; i++) {
await timer(20);
check(values[i].idSender, values[i].iscrizione, values[i].id_sito)
}
}
You may also do something like this with promises;
var apiCall = (url,n) => new Promise((v,x) => setTimeout(v,50,`the result of API call # ${url} no ${n}`)),
calls = Array(20).fill()
.map((_,i) => new Promise((v,x) => setTimeout(v,20*i))
.then(_ => apiCall("http://facebook.com",i))
.then(v => console.log(`I am doing something with ${v}`)));
.as-console-wrapper{
height: 100%;
max-height: 100% !important
}
Alternatively, using setTimeout with promises can also be used:
async function asyncLoop(values) {
let apiCallPromises = values.map((value, index)=> new Promise(resolve=>{
setTimeout(_=>{
check(value.idSender, value.iscrizione, value.id_sito)
resolve()
}, index*20)
}))
return Promise.all(apiCallPromises);
}
Fairly strait-forward, it maps each value to a check() call with a delay of 20n ms for each subsequent request.