If you’ve had the chance to observe modern JavaScript code, there are high chances that you’ve seen the async
and await
syntax somewhere.
Async/await
is arguably one of the best-received new additions to the language. Async/await makes the asynchronous code appear and behave like synchronous code. Async/await are promise-based.
Before we jump into async/await, we must understand what promises are and the role they play.
A Promise
is an object representing the eventual completion or failure of an asynchronous operation.
JavaScript is a single-threaded language — which means JavaScript can only do one thing at once. Imagine calling our API synchronously and blocking the entire thread for the API call duration — our users would have to wait 30 seconds or as long it takes for the network request to resolve — a big no-no!
In case you’re interested to learn more — here’s a more in-depth explanation about asynchronous programming with JavaScript.
The way we used to handle asynchronous JavaScript code was via callbacks. Chances are high that you’ve come across callbacks.
#javascript #programming #web development #promises