I'm trying to return a variable only after it has been set within a setTimeout callback. I couldn't think of any other way to do this, but here's my attempt (I know the code seems silly, but it's to work around a Cordova bug). For reasons beyond my understanding, it results in an infinite loop.
function isConnected() {
var done = false;
setTimeout(function() {
done = true;
}, 500);
while (!done) {}
return navigator.connection.type!== Connection.NONE;
}
Can anyone explain to me why this is happening, or provide an alternative?
Update (solution):
function isConnected(callback) {
setTimeout(function() {
callback(navigator.connection.type !== Connection.NONE);
}, 500);
}
isConnected(function(connected) {
if (!connected)
alert('Not Connected');
});
You simply can't solve your problem that way. Because javascript is single threaded, the setTimeout callback can only run when your JS thread of execution finishes so with your infinite loop, it will never get to run and your code will hang. Eventually the browser will complain about a long-running piece of JS and offer to shut it down.
Instead, you need to use a callback function on the setTimeout() and continue your code from that callback. You can't use sequential code for timeouts. You must use asynchronous coding styles.
You could do something like this where you pass in a callback and it calls the callback back and passes it the connected boolean:
function GetConnectedState(callback) {
setTimeout(function() {
callback(navigator.connection.type !== Connection.NONE);
}, 500);
}
Your existing code doesn't seem to offer anything other than a look at the connection state in 1/2 second. With any real sort of asynchronous operation in javascript (such as an ajax call or a websocket connection), there should also be a success or completion callback that will tell you when/if the operation actually completes and you can also trigger the callback based on that (sooner than 1/2 second most of the time). So, this doesn't really look like a complete solution, but it's all you show us you're using.
For example, here's an answer you can look at that calls a callback when an images loads successfully, with an error or times out with no response: Javascript Image Url Verify and How to implement a "function timeout" in Javascript - not just the 'setTimeout'. A similar concept could be used for implementing your own timeout on some other type of asynchronous call.
As I revisit this 5 years later, can't help but to offer up a fancier alternative:
await new Promise(function(resolve) {
setTimeout(resolve, 500);
});
if (navigator.connection.type === Connection.NONE) {
alert('Not Connected');
}
Javascript is single-threaded. The timeout function can't run until your script returns to the main event loop. But as long as you're in the while loop it will never return, so the timeout function never runs, so done is never set to true.
It's not possible in Javascript to wait for an asynchronous event before returning.
I know this question has been asked many times in many different ways, but I am still having trouble identifying a good solution to the following problem.
How can I wait for the callback of this asynchronously-executed inner function to complete prior to returning from the outer function?
function outer() {
var result = false;
var innerAsynch = function() {
result = true;
}
setTimeout(innerAsynch, 1000);
waitForInnerAsynch(); //blocking
return result; //true
}
1) I am well aware that this is bad practice for 99.999% of use cases, so please don't tell me that it shouldn't be done!
2) Please feel free to completely restructure this code... my only requirement is that outer() returns something which blocks the browser until innerAsynch() is done and passes the following test:
if(outer()) {
//1 second later.... yippee!
}
Also I am using jQuery, but I would prefer not to use a plugin unless it really makes sense to do so. Thanks!
Update
I want to reiterate that my goal is to fully encapsulate the asynchronous execution within the synchronous call to outer() without arguments.
In other words, this should work:
A very slow link
Perhaps this is not actually possible, in which case I am fine using callbacks, but I want to develop a better understanding of why that is the case.
Standard js pattern. You just need to use callbacks:
function outer(callback)
{
var innerAsynch = function(innerCallback) {
var result = true;
innerCallback(result);
}
setTimeout(function()
{
innerAsynch(function(result)
{
callback(result);
});
}, 1000);
}
Usage:
outer(function(result)
{
if ( result )
//true
else
//false
});
I want to reiterate that my goal is to fully encapsulate the asynchronous execution within the synchronous call to outer() without arguments.
Asynchronous execution and callbacks exist for the sole reason of not blocking. If you really want to block, don't use async code. If you do depend on async functions, re-structure your code to use callbacks. It's simple as that.
JavaScript is single-threaded, so, if you block, the browser will seem to freeze until your code unblocks. When you block, you can't even update the UI to notify the user that some long-running operation is being performed. That's why it's bad. Keep in mind that the language was designed around an event loop and a queue of asynchronous events; trying to go against that will just lead to a big headache.
Sorry about the title but could not come up with anything really informative and concise.
My situation is that I am launching a setTimeout and I want it to be able to run in the middle of a JS function (it is used to get around the issue with injecting GM functions into the web page).
unsafeWindow.testG = function(key, dValue){
var rValue;
setTimeout(function(){rValue = GM_getValue(key, dValue);}, 0);
alert(rValue);
alert(rValue);
return(rValue);
}
In the three tests rValue is still undefined (which makes sense because JS is single threaded for the most part).
So I have 2 solutions I have thought of.
Favourite:
Is there anyway to tell JS to sleep in the middle of a function and work on background stuff (like Timeouts)?
Other:
Does anyone know when this timeout will be called? Maybe after this function execution but before whatever called it starts up again?
In that case making rValue global would solve the issue (but make slightly messier coding).
Or will it wait until all JS is done executing?
In that case I would possibly need another setTimeout to process the result.
There is no way what you're asking for can be accompished. Until HTML5 is a wide spread standard, you can't do what you're asking without thinking asynchronously.
For example :
unsafeWindow.testG = function(key, dValue, callback){
var rValue;
setTimeout(function(){
rValue = GM_getValue(key, dValue);
callback(rValue);
}, 0);
}
and call this with a callback :
unsafewindow.testG(key, dValue, function(rValue) {
alert(rValue);
});
alert("foo");
For the last sippet, "foo" will be echoed before rValue, because testG will execute the timeout function only when the Javascript thread is available, or only when there's no other script running.
To answer your first question, there is no 'sleep' function in JS. In fact, there is a site devoted to trying to create one: http://www.devcheater.com/ The conclusion: you cannot.
If what you'd like to do is make the rest of your code run later, you can put that code in a function and setTimeout().
Of course, the usual way to handle the sort of scenario you have set up is with callbacks. Since you're basically waiting for the thing in setTimeout to happen, you can have it call the rest of your code whenever it's done. For example:
var fartResult
function waitAMinuteThenFart (callback) {
function fart () {
fartResult = 'fart'
callback(fartResult)
}
setTimeout(fart, 1000*60)
}
waitAMinuteThenFart(function (result) { alert(result) })
If I need call this functions one after other,
$('#art1').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000);
$('#art2').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000);
$('#art3').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000);
I know in jQuery I could do something like:
$('#art1').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000,'linear',function(){
$('#art2').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000,'linear',function(){
$('#art3').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000);
});
});
But, let's assume that I'm not using jQuery and I want to call:
some_3secs_function(some_value);
some_5secs_function(some_value);
some_8secs_function(some_value);
How I should call this functions in order to execute some_3secs_function, and AFTER that call ends, then execute some_5secs_function and AFTER that call ends, then call some_8secs_function?
UPDATE:
This still not working:
(function(callback){
$('#art1').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000);
callback();
})((function(callback2){
$('#art2').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000);
callback2();
})(function(){
$('#art3').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000);
}));
Three animations start at same time
Where is my mistake?
In Javascript, there are synchronous and asynchronous functions.
Synchronous Functions
Most functions in Javascript are synchronous. If you were to call several synchronous functions in a row
doSomething();
doSomethingElse();
doSomethingUsefulThisTime();
they will execute in order. doSomethingElse will not start until doSomething has completed. doSomethingUsefulThisTime, in turn, will not start until doSomethingElse has completed.
Asynchronous Functions
Asynchronous function, however, will not wait for each other. Let us look at the same code sample we had above, this time assuming that the functions are asynchronous
doSomething();
doSomethingElse();
doSomethingUsefulThisTime();
The functions will be initialized in order, but they will all execute roughly at the same time. You can't consistently predict which one will finish first: the one that happens to take the shortest amount of time to execute will finish first.
But sometimes, you want functions that are asynchronous to execute in order, and sometimes you want functions that are synchronous to execute asynchronously. Fortunately, this is possible with callbacks and timeouts, respectively.
Callbacks
Let's assume that we have three asynchronous functions that we want to execute in order, some_3secs_function, some_5secs_function, and some_8secs_function.
Since functions can be passed as arguments in Javascript, you can pass a function as a callback to execute after the function has completed.
If we create the functions like this
function some_3secs_function(value, callback){
//do stuff
callback();
}
then you can call then in order, like this:
some_3secs_function(some_value, function() {
some_5secs_function(other_value, function() {
some_8secs_function(third_value, function() {
//All three functions have completed, in order.
});
});
});
Timeouts
In Javascript, you can tell a function to execute after a certain timeout (in milliseconds). This can, in effect, make synchronous functions behave asynchronously.
If we have three synchronous functions, we can execute them asynchronously using the setTimeout function.
setTimeout(doSomething, 10);
setTimeout(doSomethingElse, 10);
setTimeout(doSomethingUsefulThisTime, 10);
This is, however, a bit ugly and violates the DRY principle[wikipedia]. We could clean this up a bit by creating a function that accepts an array of functions and a timeout.
function executeAsynchronously(functions, timeout) {
for(var i = 0; i < functions.length; i++) {
setTimeout(functions[i], timeout);
}
}
This can be called like so:
executeAsynchronously(
[doSomething, doSomethingElse, doSomethingUsefulThisTime], 10);
In summary, if you have asynchronous functions that you want to execute syncronously, use callbacks, and if you have synchronous functions that you want to execute asynchronously, use timeouts.
This answer uses promises, a JavaScript feature of the ECMAScript 6 standard. If your target platform does not support promises, polyfill it with PromiseJs.
Look at my answer here Wait till a Function with animations is finished until running another Function if you want to use jQuery animations.
Here is what your code would look like with ES6 Promises and jQuery animations.
Promise.resolve($('#art1').animate({ 'width': '1000px' }, 1000).promise()).then(function(){
return Promise.resolve($('#art2').animate({ 'width': '1000px' }, 1000).promise());
}).then(function(){
return Promise.resolve($('#art3').animate({ 'width': '1000px' }, 1000).promise());
});
Normal methods can also be wrapped in Promises.
new Promise(function(fulfill, reject){
//do something for 5 seconds
fulfill(result);
}).then(function(result){
return new Promise(function(fulfill, reject){
//do something for 5 seconds
fulfill(result);
});
}).then(function(result){
return new Promise(function(fulfill, reject){
//do something for 8 seconds
fulfill(result);
});
}).then(function(result){
//do something with the result
});
The then method is executed as soon as the Promise finished. Normally, the return value of the function passed to then is passed to the next one as result.
But if a Promise is returned, the next then function waits until the Promise finished executing and receives the results of it (the value that is passed to fulfill).
It sounds like you're not fully appreciating the difference between synchronous and asynchronous function execution.
The code you provided in your update immediately executes each of your callback functions, which in turn immediately start an animation. The animations, however, execute asyncronously. It works like this:
Perform a step in the animation
Call setTimeout with a function containing the next animation step and a delay
Some time passes
The callback given to setTimeout executes
Go back to step 1
This continues until the last step in the animation completes. In the meantime, your synchronous functions have long ago completed. In other words, your call to the animate function doesn't really take 3 seconds. The effect is simulated with delays and callbacks.
What you need is a queue. Internally, jQuery queues the animations, only executing your callback once its corresponding animation completes. If your callback then starts another animation, the effect is that they are executed in sequence.
In the simplest case this is equivalent to the following:
window.setTimeout(function() {
alert("!");
// set another timeout once the first completes
window.setTimeout(function() {
alert("!!");
}, 1000);
}, 3000); // longer, but first
Here's a general asynchronous looping function. It will call the given functions in order, waiting for the specified number of seconds between each.
function loop() {
var args = arguments;
if (args.length <= 0)
return;
(function chain(i) {
if (i >= args.length || typeof args[i] !== 'function')
return;
window.setTimeout(function() {
args[i]();
chain(i + 1);
}, 2000);
})(0);
}
Usage:
loop(
function() { alert("sam"); },
function() { alert("sue"); });
You could obviously modify this to take configurable wait times or to immediately execute the first function or to stop executing when a function in the chain returns false or to apply the functions in a specified context or whatever else you might need.
I believe the async library will provide you a very elegant way to do this. While promises and callbacks can get a little hard to juggle with, async can give neat patterns to streamline your thought process. To run functions in serial, you would need to put them in an async waterfall. In async lingo, every function is called a task that takes some arguments and a callback; which is the next function in the sequence. The basic structure would look something like:
async.waterfall([
// A list of functions
function(callback){
// Function no. 1 in sequence
callback(null, arg);
},
function(arg, callback){
// Function no. 2 in sequence
callback(null);
}
],
function(err, results){
// Optional final callback will get results for all prior functions
});
I've just tried to briefly explain the structure here. Read through the waterfall guide for more information, it's pretty well written.
your functions should take a callback function, that gets called when it finishes.
function fone(callback){
...do something...
callback.apply(this,[]);
}
function ftwo(callback){
...do something...
callback.apply(this,[]);
}
then usage would be like:
fone(function(){
ftwo(function(){
..ftwo done...
})
});
Since you tagged it with javascript, I would go with a timer control since your function names are 3, 5, and 8 seconds. So start your timer, 3 seconds in, call the first, 5 seconds in call the second, 8 seconds in call the third, then when it's done, stop the timer.
Normally in Javascript what you have is correct for the functions are running one after another, but since it looks like you're trying to do timed animation, a timer would be your best bet.
asec=1000;
setTimeout('some_3secs_function("somevalue")',asec*3);
setTimeout('some_5secs_function("somevalue")',asec*5);
setTimeout('some_8secs_function("somevalue")',asec*8);
I won't go into a deep discussion of setTimeout here, but:
in this case I've added the code to execute as a string. this is the simplest way to pass a var into your setTimeout-ed function, but purists will complain.
you can also pass a function name without quotes, but no variable can be passed.
your code does not wait for setTimeout to trigger.
This one can be hard to get your head around at first: because of the previous point, if you pass a variable from your calling function, that variable will not exist anymore by the time the timeout triggers - the calling function will have executed and it's vars gone.
I have been known to use anonymous functions to get around all this, but there could well be a better way,
You could also use promises in this way:
some_3secs_function(this.some_value).then(function(){
some_5secs_function(this.some_other_value).then(function(){
some_8secs_function(this.some_other_other_value);
});
});
You would have to make some_value global in order to access it from inside the .then
Alternatively, from the outer function you could return the value the inner function would use, like so:
one(some_value).then(function(return_of_one){
two(return_of_one).then(function(return_of_two){
three(return_of_two);
});
});
ES6 Update
Since async/await is widely available now, this is the way to accomplish the same:
async function run(){
await $('#art1').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000,'linear').promise()
await $('#art2').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000,'linear').promise()
await $('#art3').animate({'width':'1000px'},1000,'linear').promise()
}
Which is basically "promisifying" your functions (if they're not already asynchronous), and then awaiting them
//sample01
(function(_){_[0]()})([
function(){$('#art1').animate({'width':'10px'},100,this[1].bind(this))},
function(){$('#art2').animate({'width':'10px'},100,this[2].bind(this))},
function(){$('#art3').animate({'width':'10px'},100)},
])
//sample02
(function(_){_.next=function(){_[++_.i].apply(_,arguments)},_[_.i=0]()})([
function(){$('#art1').animate({'width':'10px'},100,this.next)},
function(){$('#art2').animate({'width':'10px'},100,this.next)},
function(){$('#art3').animate({'width':'10px'},100)},
]);
//sample03
(function(_){_.next=function(){return _[++_.i].bind(_)},_[_.i=0]()})([
function(){$('#art1').animate({'width':'10px'},100,this.next())},
function(){$('#art2').animate({'width':'10px'},100,this.next())},
function(){$('#art3').animate({'width':'10px'},100)},
]);
I use a 'waitUntil' function based on javascript's setTimeout
/*
funcCond : function to call to check whether a condition is true
readyAction : function to call when the condition was true
checkInterval : interval to poll <optional>
timeout : timeout until the setTimeout should stop polling (not 100% accurate. It was accurate enough for my code, but if you need exact milliseconds, please refrain from using Date <optional>
timeoutfunc : function to call on timeout <optional>
*/
function waitUntil(funcCond, readyAction, checkInterval, timeout, timeoutfunc) {
if (checkInterval == null) {
checkInterval = 100; // checkinterval of 100ms by default
}
var start = +new Date(); // use the + to convert it to a number immediatly
if (timeout == null) {
timeout = Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY; // no timeout by default
}
var checkFunc = function() {
var end = +new Date(); // rough timeout estimations by default
if (end-start > timeout) {
if (timeoutfunc){ // if timeout function was defined
timeoutfunc(); // call timeout function
}
} else {
if(funcCond()) { // if condition was met
readyAction(); // perform ready action function
} else {
setTimeout(checkFunc, checkInterval); // else re-iterate
}
}
};
checkFunc(); // start check function initially
};
This would work perfectly if your functions set a certain condition to true, which you would be able to poll. Plus it comes with timeouts, which offers you alternatives in case your function failed to do something (even within time-range. Think about user feedback!)
eg
doSomething();
waitUntil(function() { return doSomething_value===1;}, doSomethingElse);
waitUntil(function() { return doSomethingElse_value===1;}, doSomethingUseful);
Notes
Date causes rough timeout estimates. For greater precision, switch to functions such as console.time(). Do take note that Date offers greater cross-browser and legacy support. If you don't need exact millisecond measurements; don't bother, or, alternatively, wrap it, and offer console.time() when the browser supports it
If method 1 has to be executed after method 2, 3, 4. The following code snippet can be the solution for this using Deferred object in JavaScript.
function method1(){
var dfd = new $.Deferred();
setTimeout(function(){
console.log("Inside Method - 1");
method2(dfd);
}, 5000);
return dfd.promise();
}
function method2(dfd){
setTimeout(function(){
console.log("Inside Method - 2");
method3(dfd);
}, 3000);
}
function method3(dfd){
setTimeout(function(){
console.log("Inside Method - 3");
dfd.resolve();
}, 3000);
}
function method4(){
console.log("Inside Method - 4");
}
var call = method1();
$.when(call).then(function(cb){
method4();
});
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>