Is there an existing API to group a list of Future object into one so that I can wait for all to complete? Like in javascript's Promise.all.
You can use the Future.wait method documented here:
https://api.dart.dev/stable/2.5.0/dart-async/Future/wait.html
You can use Future.wait
Example
var futures = await Future.wait([
getAddress(),
getTeam(),
getEvents(),
]);
Related
I have a confusion in understanding Dart's async/await functionality. Most tutorials use the following example:
Future<String> createOrderMessage() async {
var order = await fetchUserOrder();
return 'Your order is: $order';
}
Future<String> fetchUserOrder() =>
// Imagine that this function is
// more complex and slow.
Future.delayed(
const Duration(seconds: 2),
() => 'Large Latte',
);
Future<void> main() async {
print('Fetching user order...');
print(await createOrderMessage());
}
I understand that the fetchUserOrder function returns a Future. Anyone who calls this function will immediately get a Future object as a result but this Future object may not have the real result value at that time. It will be filled up in "future".
Now, the createOrderMessage function calls: await fetchUserOrder(); This means, the control will wait till fetchUserOrder() returns a completed/non-empty Future. Am I right here? Is this what await does?
If that is correct, it means, the createOrderMessage function is essentially synchronous now because it won't return until the Future returned by fetchUserOrder is filled. Thus, the order variable in this function is initialized with a completed Future. Then why does this function need the "async" keyword in its function declaration? What does it signify?
Second confusion is if Dart is single threaded, when and how exactly is an async function executed? If I invoke multiple method calls that return Futures like this without await:
...
Future<A> fa = getA();
Future<B> fb = getB();
Future<C> fa = getC();
...
Will the functions getA, getB, and getC be executed sequentially in the background or they will be executed "in parallel" somehow?
Now, the createOrderMessage function calls: await fetchUserOrder(); This means, the control will wait till fetchUserOrder() returns a completed/non-empty Future. Am I right here? Is this what await does?
Yes. the await keyword means you get the completed T instead of Future<T> in return. So:
var a = fetchUserOrder(); // Type of a: Future<String>
var b = await fetchUserOrder(); // Type of b: String
When you use await, you tell the code to await the completion of the process and get the actual result. But without await, the stream is in the future and is in process until you await it somewhere else.
why does this function need the "async" keyword in its function declaration?
It's a rule to specify long-running functions. So when a function awaits for a long running process to complete, the function itself is also a long-running process. Why? Because it's waiting for another one to complete.
Therefore, you need to specify async for that as well. When another function is calling this one, it also knows this one might be long-running.
In short, every awaitable function needs to be in an async function.
Second confusion is if Dart is single threaded, when and how exactly is an async function executed?
You're mixing the concept of parallelism with asynchronous. An async process does not have to be done in multi thread.
Async processes can be one one at time, but in a different order in compare to synchronous code.
Take a look at this article which explains asynchronous in a single thread.
Now, the createOrderMessage function calls: await fetchUserOrder(); This means, the control will wait till fetchUserOrder() returns a completed/non-empty Future. Am I right here? Is this what await does?
If that is correct, it means, the createOrderMessage function is essentially synchronous now because it won't return until the Future returned by fetchUserOrder is filled. Thus, the order variable in this function is initialized with a completed Future.
await allows asynchronous functions to have the appearance of synchronous functions by allowing asynchronous code to be structured very similarly to synchronous code. In your example, it's syntactic sugar for registering a Future.then() callback and immediately returning:
Future<String> createOrderMessage() {
var future = fetchUserOrder().then((order) {
return 'Your order is: $order';
});
return future;
}
await defers execution of the rest of that function; it does not wait and block execution of your entire thread. Your program will continue running its event loop, possibly allowing other asynchronous operations to make progress.
Will the functions getA, getB, and getC be executed sequentially in the background or they will be executed "in parallel" somehow?
As I mentioned in comments, it depends on how getA, getB, and getC are implemented. They could run in parallel, such as if they run in separate Dart isolates or in separate threads in the Dart VM/runtime.
I'm converting dart code to nnbd.
I have the following code.
var subscription = response.listen(
(newBytes) async {
/// if we don't pause we get overlapping calls from listen
/// which causes the [writeFrom] to fail as you can't
/// do overlapping io.
subscription.pause();
/// we have new data to save.
await raf.writeFrom(newBytes);
subscription.resume();
});
The problem is I get the following error:
The non-nullable local variable 'subscription' must be assigned before it can be used.
Try giving it an initializer expression, or ensure that it's assigned on every execution path.
I've had a similar problem solved here:
dart - correct coding pattern for subscription when using null saftey?
which was answered by #lrn
However the pattern solution pattern doesn't seem to work in this case.
raf.writeFrom is an async operation so I must use an 'async' method which means I can't use the 'forEach' solution as again I don't have access to the subscription object.
If you really want to use listen, I'd do it as:
var subscription = response.listen(null);
subscription.onData((newBytes) async {
subscription.pause();
await raf.writeFrom(newBytes);
subscription.resume();
});
or, without the async:
var subscription = response.listen(null);
subscription.onData((newBytes) {
subscription.pause(raf.writeFrom(newBytes));
});
which will pause the subscription until the future returned by raf.writeFrom completes (it shouldn't complete with an error, though).
If using listen is not a priority, I'd prefer to use an asynchronous for-in like:
await for (var newBytes in subscription) {
await raf.writeFrom(newBytes);
}
which automatically pauses the implicit subscription at the await and resumes it when you get back to the loop.
Both with stream.listen and the StreamController constructor, null safety has made it nicer to create them first without callbacks, and then add the callbacks later, if the callback needs to refer to the subscription/controller.
(That's basically the same nswer as in the linked question, only applied to onData instead of onDone. You have to pass a default onData argument to listen, but it can be null precisely to support this approach.)
I don't think your code, as written, was legal before null-safety either; you can't reference a variable (subscription) before it's declared, and the declaration isn't complete until after the expression you initialize it with (response.listen(...)) is evaluated. You will need to separate the declaration from the initialization to break the circular dependency:
StreamSubscription<List<int>> subscription;
subscription = response.listen(...);
I want to load multiple descriptions from an async-function one-by-one by using map:
Future<List<Description>> loadDescriptions(List<String> questions) async {
Iterable<Future<Description>> iterable =
questions.map((question) async => (await loadDescription(question)));
return iterable.toList();
}
.toList() unfortunately doesn't work here. Is there a way to rewrite the code in dart so that I get Future<List<Description>> as output?
I guess the following should work:
Future<List<Description>> loadDescriptions(List<String> questions) async =>
[for (final question in questions) await loadDescription(question)];
I should add that the behavior in this solution is that each Future will be await before the next in a sequence (also mentioned by #jamesdlin) which in some cases can be suboptimal.
Instead, we can await on all Future's at the same time and let Dart fetch the results and then return the List<Description> if using Future.wait:
Future<List<Description>> loadDescriptions(List<String> questions) =>
Future.wait(questions.map(loadDescription));
I am hoping this is a simple question, but could not find the answer. In synchronous Dart code, you can do method cascades like:
var obj1 = new SomeClass()
..method1()
..method2(param1, param2)
..method3();
Supposed that instead, those methods return Futures for asynchronous code. So now it seems we have to do:
var obj1 = new SomeClass();
await obj1.method1();
await obj1.method2(param1, param2);
await obj1.method3();
Do method cascades work with the whole async/await constructs? If so, how?
Looks like this is not (yet) supported.
There is an open issue https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/23000
I want to execute same future function with different values. The order is not important. But I want to execute some functions after the above future function. My idea is
addrMapList.forEach((addrMap){ //length is 3
exeQuery(sql).then((result){
print(result);
});
});
print('All finished');
// other actions
Future exeQuery(String sql){
var c=new Completer();
Random rnd=new Random();
c.complete(rnd.nextInt(100));
return c.future;
}
But the result is
All finished
72
90
74
But I need a result like
72
90
74
All finished
How can this implement in dart.. Please help.
Here is modified version of your sample to work as you expected it to.
First of all, you should understand how asynchronous code works, and why it was not in your case:
When you write constructions like <some future>.then( (){...} ); you are not immediately running code defined inside .then( ). You just defining a callback, to be called later. So, in your code, you're defined 3 callbacks, and then, immediately, printed "All finished", at the time when no of your futures even started to work. At this moment they are just sitting in dart's event loop and waiting for a chance to be executed. And they will get that chance only when you finish execution of current code, and not a moment earlier, because Isolate is run as a single thread.
I used Future.wait() to wait for multiple futures because you said order is not important. This is more efficient then waiting Futures one by one. But if order is important, you have to use Future.forEach(), it will not start execution of second Future until first one is completed.
One more thing in your code is that your function returning a Future is actually synchronous, because it always returns already completed Future. This is also changed in dartpad sample above to better visualize how asynchronous code works.
forEach can't be used this way. Use await for instead (the enclosing function needs to be async)
Future someFunc() async {
await for (var addrMap in addrMapList) {
var result = await exeQuery(sql);
print(result);
}
// other action
}