Scala: List[Future] to Future[List] disregarding failed futures

Question

I\'m looking for a way to convert an arbitrary length list of Futures to a Future of List. I\'m using Playframework, so ultimately, what I really want is a Future[Resu

Answer 1

The trick is to first make sure that none of the futures has failed. .recover is your friend here, you can combine it with map to convert all the Future[T] results to Future[Try[T]]] instances, all of which are certain to be successful futures.

note: You can use Option or Either as well here, but Try is the cleanest way if you specifically want to trap exceptions

def futureToFutureTry[T](f: Future[T]): Future[Try[T]] =
  f.map(Success(_)).recover { case x => Failure(x)}

val listOfFutures = ...
val listOfFutureTrys = listOfFutures.map(futureToFutureTry(_))

Then use Future.sequence as before, to give you a Future[List[Try[T]]]

val futureListOfTrys = Future.sequence(listOfFutureTrys)

Then filter:

val futureListOfSuccesses = futureListOfTrys.map(_.filter(_.isSuccess))

You can even pull out the specific failures, if you need them:

val futureListOfFailures = futureListOfTrys.map(_.filter(_.isFailure))

Answer 2

Scala 2.12 has an improvement on Future.transform that lends itself in an anwser with less codes.

val futures = Seq(Future{1},Future{throw new Exception})

// instead of `map` and `recover`, use `transform`
val seq = Future.sequence(futures.map(_.transform(Success(_)))) 

val successes = seq.map(_.collect{case Success(x)=>x})
successes
//res1: Future[Seq[Int]] = Future(Success(List(1)))

val failures = seq.map(_.collect{case Failure(x)=>x})
failures
//res2: Future[Seq[Throwable]] = Future(Success(List(java.lang.Exception)))

Answer 3

I just came across this question and have another solution to offer:

def allSuccessful[A, M[X] <: TraversableOnce[X]](in: M[Future[A]])
                                                (implicit cbf: CanBuildFrom[M[Future[A]], A, M[A]], 
                                                 executor: ExecutionContext): Future[M[A]] = {
    in.foldLeft(Future.successful(cbf(in))) {
      (fr, fa) ⇒ (for (r ← fr; a ← fa) yield r += a) fallbackTo fr
    } map (_.result())
}

The idea here is that within the fold you are waiting for the next element in the list to complete (using the for-comprehension syntax) and if the next one fails you just fallback to what you already have.

Answer 4

You can also collect successful and unsuccessful results in different lists:

def safeSequence[A](futures: List[Future[A]]): Future[(List[Throwable], List[A])] = {
  futures.foldLeft(Future.successful((List.empty[Throwable], List.empty[A]))) { (flist, future) =>
    flist.flatMap { case (elist, alist) =>
      future
        .map { success => (elist, alist :+ success) }
        .recover { case error: Throwable => (elist :+ error, alist) }
    }
  }
}

Answer 5

I tried Kevin's answer, and I ran into a glitch on my version of Scala (2.11.5)... I corrected that, and wrote a few additional tests if anyone is interested... here is my version >

implicit class FutureCompanionOps(val f: Future.type) extends AnyVal {

    /** Given a list of futures `fs`, returns the future holding the list of Try's of the futures from `fs`.
      * The returned future is completed only once all of the futures in `fs` have been completed.
      */
    def allAsTrys[T](fItems: /* future items */ List[Future[T]]): Future[List[Try[T]]] = {
      val listOfFutureTrys: List[Future[Try[T]]] = fItems.map(futureToFutureTry)
      Future.sequence(listOfFutureTrys)
    }

    def futureToFutureTry[T](f: Future[T]): Future[Try[T]] = {
      f.map(Success(_)) .recover({case x => Failure(x)})
    }

    def allFailedAsTrys[T](fItems: /* future items */ List[Future[T]]): Future[List[Try[T]]] = {
      allAsTrys(fItems).map(_.filter(_.isFailure))
    }

    def allSucceededAsTrys[T](fItems: /* future items */ List[Future[T]]): Future[List[Try[T]]] = {
      allAsTrys(fItems).map(_.filter(_.isSuccess))
    }
}


// Tests... 



  // allAsTrys tests
  //
  test("futureToFutureTry returns Success if no exception") {
    val future =  Future.futureToFutureTry(Future{"mouse"})
    Thread.sleep(0, 100)
    val futureValue = future.value
    assert(futureValue == Some(Success(Success("mouse"))))
  }
  test("futureToFutureTry returns Failure if exception thrown") {
    val future =  Future.futureToFutureTry(Future{throw new IllegalStateException("bad news")})
    Thread.sleep(5)            // need to sleep a LOT longer to get Exception from failure case... interesting.....
    val futureValue = future.value

    assertResult(true) {
      futureValue match {
        case Some(Success(Failure(error: IllegalStateException)))  => true
      }
    }
  }
  test("Future.allAsTrys returns Nil given Nil list as input") {
    val future =  Future.allAsTrys(Nil)
    assert ( Await.result(future, 100 nanosecond).isEmpty )
  }
  test("Future.allAsTrys returns successful item even if preceded by failing item") {
    val future1 =  Future{throw new IllegalStateException("bad news")}
    var future2 = Future{"dog"}

    val futureListOfTrys =  Future.allAsTrys(List(future1,future2))
    val listOfTrys =  Await.result(futureListOfTrys, 10 milli)
    System.out.println("successItem:" + listOfTrys);

    assert(listOfTrys(0).failed.get.getMessage.contains("bad news"))
    assert(listOfTrys(1) == Success("dog"))
  }
  test("Future.allAsTrys returns successful item even if followed by failing item") {
    var future1 = Future{"dog"}
    val future2 =  Future{throw new IllegalStateException("bad news")}

    val futureListOfTrys =  Future.allAsTrys(List(future1,future2))
    val listOfTrys =  Await.result(futureListOfTrys,  10 milli)
    System.out.println("successItem:" + listOfTrys);

    assert(listOfTrys(1).failed.get.getMessage.contains("bad news"))
    assert(listOfTrys(0) == Success("dog"))
  }
  test("Future.allFailedAsTrys returns the failed item and only that item") {
    var future1 = Future{"dog"}
    val future2 =  Future{throw new IllegalStateException("bad news")}

    val futureListOfTrys =  Future.allFailedAsTrys(List(future1,future2))
    val listOfTrys =  Await.result(futureListOfTrys,  10 milli)
    assert(listOfTrys(0).failed.get.getMessage.contains("bad news"))
    assert(listOfTrys.size == 1)
  }
  test("Future.allSucceededAsTrys returns the succeeded item and only that item") {
    var future1 = Future{"dog"}
    val future2 =  Future{throw new IllegalStateException("bad news")}

    val futureListOfTrys =  Future.allSucceededAsTrys(List(future1,future2))
    val listOfTrys =  Await.result(futureListOfTrys,  10 milli)
    assert(listOfTrys(0) == Success("dog"))
    assert(listOfTrys.size == 1)
  }

Answer 6

You can easily wraps future result with option and then flatten the list:

def futureToFutureOption[T](f: Future[T]): Future[Option[T]] =
    f.map(Some(_)).recover {
      case e => None
    }
val listOfFutureOptions = listOfFutures.map(futureToFutureOption(_))

val futureListOfOptions = Future.sequence(listOfFutureOptions)

val futureListOfSuccesses = futureListOfOptions.flatten