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Siwalik Mukherjee
Siwalik Mukherjee

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Async programming basics every JS developer should know

This article is aimed at people starting out with asynchronous coding in javascript so we would keep things simple by avoiding big words, arrow functions, template literals etc.

Callbacks are one of the most used concepts of modern functional javascript and if you've ever used jQuery, chances are you've already used callbacks without even knowing (we will get back to it in a minute).

What the Heck are Callback Functions?

A callback function in its simplest terms is a function that is passed to another function, as a parameter. The callback function then gets executed inside the function where it is passed and the final result is returned to the caller.

// I'm sure you've seen a JQuery code snippet like this at some point in your life!
// The parameter we're passing to the `click` method here is a callback function.

$("button").click(function() {
    alert('clicked on button`);
});
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Simple right? Now let us implement a callback function to get scores on levelling up in an imaginary game.

// levelOne() is called a high-order function because // it accepts another function as its parameter. function levelOne(value, callback) { var newScore = value + 5; callback(newScore); } // Please note that it is not mandatory to reference the callback function (line #3) as callback, it is named so just for better understanding. function startGame() { var currentScore = 5; console.log('Game Started! Current score is ' + currentScore); // Here the second parameter we're passing to levelOne is the // callback function, i.e., a function that gets passed as a parameter. levelOne(currentScore, function (levelOneReturnedValue) { console.log('Level One reached! New score is ' + levelOneReturnedValue); }); } startGame();

Once inside startGame() function, we call the levelOne() function with parameters as currentScore and our callback function().

When we call levelOne() inside startGame() function's scope, in an asynchronous way, javascript executes the function levelOne() and the main thread keeps on going ahead with the remaining part of our code.

This means we can do all kind of operations like fetching data from an API, doing some math etc., everything which can be time-consuming and hence we won't be blocking our main thread for it. Once the function(levelOne()) has done with its operations, it can execute the callback function we passed earlier.

This is an immensely useful feature of functional programming as callbacks lets us handle code asynchronously without us have to wait for a response. For example, you can make an ajax call to a slow server with a callback func. and completely forget about it and continue with your remaining code. Once that ajax call gets resolved, the callback function gets executed automatically.

But Callbacks can get nasty if there are multiple levels of callbacks to be executed in a chain. Let's take the above example and add a few more levels to our game.

function levelOne(value, callback) { var newScore = value + 5; callback(newScore); } function levelTwo(value, callback) { var newScore = value + 10; callback(newScore); } function levelThree(value, callback) { var newScore = value + 30; callback(newScore); } // Note that it is not needed to reference the callback function as callback when we call levelOne(), levelTwo() or levelThree(), it can be named anything. function startGame() { var currentScore = 5; console.log('Game Started! Current score is ' + currentScore); levelOne(currentScore, function (levelOneReturnedValue) { console.log('Level One reached! New score is ' + levelOneReturnedValue); levelTwo(levelOneReturnedValue, function (levelTwoReturnedValue) { console.log('Level Two reached! New score is ' + levelTwoReturnedValue); levelThree(levelTwoReturnedValue, function (levelThreeReturnedValue) { console.log('Level Three reached! New score is ' + levelThreeReturnedValue); }); }); }); } startGame();

Wait, what just happened? We added two new functions for level logic, levelTwo() and levelThree(). Inside levelOne's callback(line #22), called levelTwo() function with a callback func. and levelOne's callback's result. And repeat the same thing for levelThree() function again.

callback meme

Now just imagine what this code will become if we had to implement the same logic for another 10 levels. Are you already panicking? Well, I am! As the number of nested callback functions increases, it becomes tougher to read your code and even harder to debug.

This is often affectionately known as a callback hell. Is there a way out of this callback hell?

I Promise there's a better way

Javascript started supporting Promises from ES6. Promises are basically objects representing the eventual completion (or failure) of an asynchronous operation, and its resulting value.

// This is how a sample promise declaration looks like. The promise constructor
// takes one argument which is a callback with two parameters, `resolve` and
// `reject`. Do something within the callback, then call resolve if everything
// worked, otherwise call reject.

var promise = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
  // do a thing or twenty
  if (/* everything turned out fine */) {
    resolve("Stuff worked!");
  }
  else {
    reject(Error("It broke"));
  }
});
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Let us try to rewrite our callback hell example with promises now.

function levelOne(value) { var promise, newScore = value + 5; return promise = new Promise(function(resolve) { resolve(newScore); }); } function levelTwo(value) { var promise, newScore = value + 10; return promise = new Promise(function(resolve) { resolve(newScore); }); } function levelThree(value) { var promise, newScore = value + 30; return promise = new Promise(function(resolve) { resolve(newScore); }); } var startGame = new Promise(function (resolve, reject) { var currentScore = 5; console.log('Game Started! Current score is ' + currentScore); resolve(currentScore); }); // The response from startGame is automatically passed on to the function inside the subsequent then startGame.then(levelOne) .then(function (result) { // the value of result is the returned promise from levelOne function console.log('You have reached Level One! New score is ' + result); return result; }) .then(levelTwo).then(function (result) { console.log('You have reached Level Two! New score is ' + result); return result; }) .then(levelThree).then(function (result) { console.log('You have reached Level Three! New score is ' + result); });

We have re-wrote our level(One/Two/Three) functions to remove callbacks from the function param and instead of calling the callback function inside them, replaced with promises.

Once startGame is resolved, we can simply call a .then() method on it and handle the result. We can chain multiple promises one after another with .then() chaining.

This makes the whole code much more readable and easier to understand in terms of what is happening, and then what happens next and so on.

The deep reason why promises are often better is that they're more composable, which roughly means that combining multiple promises "just works" while combining multiple callbacks often doesn't.

Also when we have a single callback versus a single promise, it's true there's no significant difference. It's when you have a zillion callbacks versus a zillion promises that the promise-based code tends to look much nicer.

Okay, we've escaped successfully from the callback hell and made our code much readable with promises. But what if I told you there's a way to make it cleaner and more readable?

(a)Wait for it

Async- await is being supported in javascript since ECMA2017. They allow you to write promise-based code as if it were synchronous code, but without blocking the main thread. They make your asynchronous code less "clever" and more readable.

To be honest, async-awaits are nothing but syntactic sugar on top of promises but it makes asynchronous code look and behaves a little more like synchronous code, that's precisely where it's power lies.

If you use the async keyword before a function definition, you can then use await within the function. When you await a promise, the function is paused in a non-blocking way until the promise settles. If the promise fulfils, you get the value back. If the promise rejects, the rejected value is thrown.

Let us see now how our game logic looks once we rewrite it with async-awaits!

function levelOne(value) { var promise, newScore = value + 5; return promise = new Promise(function(resolve) { resolve(newScore); }); } function levelTwo(value) { var promise, newScore = value + 10; return promise = new Promise(function(resolve) { resolve(newScore); }); } function levelThree(value) { var promise, newScore = value + 30; return promise = new Promise(function(resolve) { resolve(newScore); }); } // the async keyword tells the javascript engine that any function inside this function having the keyword await, should be treated as asynchronous code and should continue executing only once that function resolves or fails. async function startGame() { var currentScore = 5; console.log('Game Started! Current score is ' + currentScore); currentScore = await levelOne(currentScore); console.log('You have reached Level One! New score is ' + currentScore); currentScore = await levelTwo(currentScore); console.log('You have reached Level Two! New score is ' + currentScore); currentScore = await levelThree(currentScore); console.log('You have reached Level Three! New score is ' + currentScore); } startGame();

Immediately our code becomes much more readable but there's more to Async-await.

Error handling is one of the top features of Async-await which stands out. Finally we can handle both synchronous and asynchronous errors with the same construct with try and catches which was a pain with promises without duplicating try-catch blocks.

The next best improvement from good old promise world is code debugging. When we write arrow function based promises, we can't set breakpoints inside our arrow functions so debugging is tough at times. But with async-awaits, debugging is just like how you would do a synchronous piece of code.

I'm sure that by now you have a better understanding of asynchronous programming in javascript. If you have a question, let me know below. If you found this helpful, give me a shoutout on Twitter!

Happy Coding! ✌️

Top comments (33)

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vonheikemen profile image
Heiker

Nice article. Good job.

One thing that is worth mention is that callback hell can be avoided even if you are "stuck" in an environment that doesn't support promises or async/await. You can always use a function reference instead of an anonymous function.

The game example could look like this:

// ...

var levelThreeReached = function (value) {
  console.log('Level Three reached! New score is ' + value);
}

function levelTwoReached (value) {
  console.log('Level Two reached! New score is ' + value);
  levelThree(value, levelThreeReached);
}

function levelOneReached(value) {
  console.log('Level One reached! New score is ' + value);
  levelTwo(value, levelTwoReached);
}

function startGame() {
  var currentScore = 5;
  console.log('Game Started! Current score is ' + currentScore);
  levelOne(currentScore, levelOneReached);
}
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zeke profile image
Zeke Hernandez

As someone who doesn't regularly code JS, this was a very helpful primer for these features. Thanks!

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

Glad to hear that Zeke! 🙂

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nempet profile image
Nemanja Petrovic

In the last example, do you really need

 return promise = new Promise(function(resolve) {
        resolve(newScore);
    });
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in each function, or you can simply return?

return value + {integer};
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By the way, great article!

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joepvl profile image
Joep van Liempd • Edited

I think the author was returning those Promises explicitly here to illustrate the point of being able to "get the value out of" the Promise using the await keyword, without having to jump through the normal .then(fn) hoops. An alternative (usually considered to be more idiomatic) way to write the return statements would have been return Promise.resolve(newScore);.

However, without any "real" async logic in those functions, you could indeed simply return and it would preserve the current behaviour; you can await a regular value just fine (i.e. let x = await 5 is valid syntax). As far as I'm aware it can potentially affect the order in which things are processed within the current iteration of the event loop, but that won't observably influence things in most cases, including this one.

For completeness' sake, we could take things one step further by making the level functions async as well. An async function will always return a Promise implicitly, so the following are functionally equivalent:

async function levelOne(value) {
  return value + 5;
}

function levelOne(value) {
  return Promise.resolve(value + 5);
}

This way, we can leave the explicit Promises out, but still benefit from the asynchronous flow.

To make the asynchronous behaviour clearer, we could introduce a "wait" function as well, which does nothing more than resolve the Promise it returns after the passed amount of milliseconds:


// note: there is no need to mark this function `async`,
// as we need to explicitly return a `Promise` anyway in
// order to make use of `resolve`
function wait(ms) {
  return new Promise(function(resolve) {
    setTimeout(resolve, ms);
  });
}

async function levelOne(value) {
  await wait(500);
  return value + 5;
}

async function levelTwo(value) {
  await wait(500);
  return value + 10;
}

async function levelThree(value) {
  await wait(500);
  return value + 30;
}

async function startGame() {
  let currentScore = 5;
  console.log('Game Started! Current score is ' + currentScore);
  currentScore = await levelOne(currentScore);
  console.log('You have reached Level One! New score is ' + currentScore);
  currentScore = await levelTwo(currentScore);
  console.log('You have reached Level Two! New score is ' + currentScore);
  currentScore = await levelThree(currentScore);
  console.log('You have reached Level Three! New score is ' + currentScore);
}

startGame();

If you run this code (e.g. paste it into your console and press enter), you'll see that it runs just as the code in the article, the difference being it has 500ms pauses in between the log messages (the number 500 coming from the value that is passed to wait in each case).

Note that if you were to remove the await keywords in the level functions, that would take away the 500ms pause in that spot. The wait function would still be called, but the engine is not instructed to wait for the returned Promise to resolve before continuing, so it will just move on to the next statement immediately.

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

I couldn't have explained this question better @Joep 😀Thank you 🙏

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joepvl profile image
Joep van Liempd

My pleasure!

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dannypsnl profile image
林子篆

Well done!

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

Thank you 🙌

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alrobilliard profile image
Andrew Robilliard

I've been struggling to wrap my head around promises and this article made it very clear with your example. Time to go write something with async/await 😀

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

Thank you Andrew, good luck ✌️

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usuario001 profile image
José Manuel

Good and perfect!

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

Thanks José 🙌

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lmbarr profile image
Luis Miguel

Nice article, very succinct and concise.

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

Yay! Learnt a new word, now I have to use it! 🎉🎉
Glad you found it succinct Luis 🤓

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rogercoder profile image
Roger Hand

To anyone exploring asynchronous Javascript programming, also take a look at Observables, in the Rxjs library.

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jochemstoel profile image
Jochem Stoel

Thank you for this well written article. I am sure many will find it useful.

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

Thanks Jochem! :)

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juniorbatistadev profile image
Junior Batista

Really useful! Thank you!

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

I'm happy that you found this helpful.

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ssunil profile image
Sunil Shenoy

You have explained this really well. 👌

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

Thank you Sunil 🙌

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varsanyid profile image
varsanyid

Thanks for the article! However, a high-order function is a function that accepts another function as its parameter or returns one. A callback function is a function that gets passed as a parameter.

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee • Edited

Hey varsanyid, nice catch! 🙌Corrected the typo, thanks for pointing 😀

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alwynschoeman profile image
Alwyn Schoeman

Your callback examples are not async or am I missing something?

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee • Edited

Hi Alwyn, the examples are asynchronously executed indeed, just that for the simplicity's sake our example level functions call the callbacks instantly. I have not introduced a setTimeout or a ajax call inside the functions but you can play around and see that even if you do, they work perfectly.

Here's an example demonstrating that

function levelOne(value, callback) {
  var newScore = value + 5;
  // making API call to slower server with 5 sec. delay
  fetch('https://www.mocky.io/v2/5b5c746332000081004262fd?mocky-delay=5000ms')
    .then(function (response) {
      return response.json();
    })
    .then(function (myJson) {
      console.log(`// delay on async api call for ${myJson.delay}`);
      callback(newScore);
    });
  // p.s. although setTimeout makes your code behave like async(), it is not.
  // read more => https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/q/194580/
}

function startGame() {
  var currentScore = 5;
  console.log(`Game Started! Current score is ${currentScore}`);
  levelOne(currentScore, function (levelOneReturnedValue) {
    console.log(`Level One reached! New score is ${levelOneReturnedValue}`);
  });
  console.log(`Hi, I'm a rebel and I don't wait for levelOne`);
}

startGame();

// Game Started! Current score is 5
// Hi, I'm a rebel and I don't wait for levelOne

// // delay on async api call for 5 seconds
// Level One reached! New score is 10
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sodic profile image
Filip Sodić • Edited

I realize I'm a bit late to the discussion, but, since this is a fairly popular article and I believe many will be using it as a reference in the future, I chose to write this comment anyway.

Also, keep in mind, I am far from a JS expert, it is entirely possible for me to get something wrong or misinterpret the original article. Then again, if I misinterpreted it, who knows how many others might misinterpret it as well.

With all that said, Alwyn is 100% percent right, the callbacks in the article are not asynchronous and, if you think about it, they really shouldn't be. As stated in the article, a callback is simply a function passed as an argument to another function. It's just like any other argument a function can get. It makes no sense for a callback to be magically asynchronously called just by being there. We would not expect an argument of type Number to make anything async, so why should a function be any different?

Siwalik, all that is called asynchronously in the code you provided as an answer to Alwyn's question is the first argument of the setTimeout function. This function creates an event and attaches the arrow function to it. This arrow function is then called after the event is settled (5 seconds later). The functions startGame, levelOne and callback are all called synchronously. The only thing making the code appear asynchronous is the event you created with setTimeout and this has nothing to do with callbacks.

A good example of proving the synchronous and disproving the asynchronous nature of your original functions is this one:

function levelOne(value, callback) {
    var newScore = value + 5;
    callback(newScore);
    console.log('After callback');
}

function startGame() {
    var currentScore = 5;
    console.log('Game Started! Current score is ' + currentScore);
    levelOne(currentScore, function(levelOneReturnedValue) {
        console.log('Level One reached! New score is ' + levelOneReturnedValue);

        // some useless job to cause waiting
        var a;
        for(var i = 0; i < 1000000000; i++){
            a += i;
        }

        console.log('Done with callback');
    });
    console.log('After levelOne');
}

startGame();

Notice how 'After callback' and 'Done with callback' are printed before 'After levelOne', proving that the callback call is indeed synchronous.

Turns out this 'callbacks being asynchronous' thing is a common misconception. Take a look at this stack overflow thread for more information.

Again, sorry if you knew all of this and I just misunderstood your words.

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee • Edited

Hi @Filip, I appreciate you for taking the time and explaining this in detail.

I realise setTimeout isn't asynchronous but I've naively used it to mock how an async call would actually behave, didn't realise people starting out might get confused thinking setTimeout has to do anything with async.

Update: I went up and replaced the setTimeout I wrote in @Alwin's reply with an actual API call with delay, for correct depiction of javascript's working. :)

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lucasmonstro profile image
Lucas Silva

Do not forget to write code in es7+ way :-D Great article.

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tucq88 profile image
Tu Chu

Pretty decent post. Actually I've never see any cleaner guide to resolve callback helll like this. Kudos!

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siwalikm profile image
Siwalik Mukherjee

Appreciate that Tu! Thanks 🙌