jQuery deferreds and promises - .then() vs .done()

Question

I\'ve been reading about jQuery deferreds and promises and I can\'t see the difference between using .then() & .done() for successful callbacks

Answer 1

There is also difference in way that return results are processed (its called chaining, done doesn't chain while then produces call chains)

promise.then(function (x) { // Suppose promise returns "abc"
    console.log(x);
    return 123;
}).then(function (x){
    console.log(x);
}).then(function (x){
    console.log(x)
})

The following results will get logged:

abc
123
undefined

While

promise.done(function (x) { // Suppose promise returns "abc"
    console.log(x);
    return 123;
}).done(function (x){
    console.log(x);
}).done(function (x){
    console.log(x)
})

will get the following:

abc
abc
abc

---------- Update:

Btw. I forgot to mention, if you return a Promise instead of atomic type value, the outer promise will wait until inner promise resolves:

promise.then(function (x) { // Suppose promise returns "abc"
    console.log(x);
    return $http.get('/some/data').then(function (result) {
        console.log(result); // suppose result === "xyz"
        return result;
    });
}).then(function (result){
    console.log(result); // result === xyz
}).then(function (und){
    console.log(und) // und === undefined, because of absence of return statement in above then
})

in this way it becomes very straightforward to compose parallel or sequential asynchronous operations such as:

// Parallel http requests
promise.then(function (x) { // Suppose promise returns "abc"
    console.log(x);

    var promise1 = $http.get('/some/data?value=xyz').then(function (result) {
        console.log(result); // suppose result === "xyz"
        return result;
    });

    var promise2 = $http.get('/some/data?value=uvm').then(function (result) {
        console.log(result); // suppose result === "uvm"
        return result;
    });

    return promise1.then(function (result1) {
        return promise2.then(function (result2) {
           return { result1: result1, result2: result2; }
        });
    });
}).then(function (result){
    console.log(result); // result === { result1: 'xyz', result2: 'uvm' }
}).then(function (und){
    console.log(und) // und === undefined, because of absence of return statement in above then
})

The above code issues two http requests in parallel thus making the requests complete sooner, while below those http requests are being run sequentially thus reducing server load

// Sequential http requests
promise.then(function (x) { // Suppose promise returns "abc"
    console.log(x);

    return $http.get('/some/data?value=xyz').then(function (result1) {
        console.log(result1); // suppose result1 === "xyz"
        return $http.get('/some/data?value=uvm').then(function (result2) {
            console.log(result2); // suppose result2 === "uvm"
            return { result1: result1, result2: result2; };
        });
    });
}).then(function (result){
    console.log(result); // result === { result1: 'xyz', result2: 'uvm' }
}).then(function (und){
    console.log(und) // und === undefined, because of absence of return statement in above then
})