JavaScript ES6 promise for loop [duplicate]

Answer 1

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.