Correct way to write loops for promise.

Question

How to correctly construct a loop to make sure the following promise call and the chained logger.log(res) runs synchronously through iterat

Answer 1

Here's how I do it with the standard Promise object.

// Given async function sayHi
function sayHi() {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    setTimeout(() => {
      console.log('Hi');
      resolve();
    }, 3000);
  });
}

// And an array of async functions to loop through
const asyncArray = [sayHi, sayHi, sayHi];

// We create the start of a promise chain
let chain = Promise.resolve();

// And append each function in the array to the promise chain
for (const func of asyncArray) {
  chain = chain.then(func);
}

// Output:
// Hi
// Hi (After 3 seconds)
// Hi (After 3 more seconds)

Answer 2

Using the standard promise object, and having the promise return the results.

function promiseMap (data, f) {
  const reducer = (promise, x) =>
    promise.then(acc => f(x).then(y => acc.push(y) && acc))
  return data.reduce(reducer, Promise.resolve([]))
}

var emails = []

function getUser(email) {
  return db.getUser(email)
}

promiseMap(emails, getUser).then(emails => {
  console.log(emails)
})

Answer 3

How about this one using BlueBird?

function fetchUserDetails(arr) {
    return Promise.each(arr, function(email) {
        return db.getUser(email).done(function(res) {
            logger.log(res);
        });
    });
}

Answer 4

Bergi's suggested function is really nice:

var promiseWhile = Promise.method(function(condition, action) {
      if (!condition()) return;
    return action().then(promiseWhile.bind(null, condition, action));
});

Still I want to make a tiny addition, which makes sense, when using promises:

var promiseWhile = Promise.method(function(condition, action, lastValue) {
  if (!condition()) return lastValue;
  return action().then(promiseWhile.bind(null, condition, action));
});

This way the while loop can be embedded into a promise chain and resolves with lastValue (also if the action() is never run). See example:

var count = 10;
util.promiseWhile(
  function condition() {
    return count > 0;
  },
  function action() {
    return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
      count = count - 1;
      resolve(count)
    })
  },
  count)

Answer 5

Given

• asyncFn function
• array of items

Required

• promise chaining .then()'s in series (in order)
• native es6

Solution

let asyncFn = (item) => {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    setTimeout( () => {console.log(item); resolve(true)}, 1000 )
  })
}

// asyncFn('a')
// .then(()=>{return async('b')})
// .then(()=>{return async('c')})
// .then(()=>{return async('d')})

let a = ['a','b','c','d']

a.reduce((previous, current, index, array) => {
  return previous                                    // initiates the promise chain
  .then(()=>{return asyncFn(array[index])})      //adds .then() promise for each item
}, Promise.resolve())

Answer 6

I don't think it guarantees the order of calling logger.log(res);

Actually, it does. That statement is executed before the resolve call.

Any suggestions?

Lots. The most important is your use of the create-promise-manually antipattern - just do only

promiseWhile(…, function() {
    return db.getUser(email)
             .then(function(res) { 
                 logger.log(res); 
                 count++;
             });
})…

Second, that while function could be simplified a lot:

var promiseWhile = Promise.method(function(condition, action) {
    if (!condition()) return;
    return action().then(promiseWhile.bind(null, condition, action));
});

Third, I would not use a while loop (with a closure variable) but a for loop:

var promiseFor = Promise.method(function(condition, action, value) {
    if (!condition(value)) return value;
    return action(value).then(promiseFor.bind(null, condition, action));
});

promiseFor(function(count) {
    return count < 10;
}, function(count) {
    return db.getUser(email)
             .then(function(res) { 
                 logger.log(res); 
                 return ++count;
             });
}, 0).then(console.log.bind(console, 'all done'));