asynchronous-queue

One liner minimal (only 159 bytes) asynchronous function queue for node.js, browser and TypeScript

Install

npm install asynchronous-queue

Usage

Execute functions sequencially

The callback function passed into queue.push() will always be executed sequencially, which means that the next callback function will wait until completion of former callback if any promise is returned.

import {createAsyncQueue} from 'asynchronous-queue'
 
const wait = (ms: number) => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms))
 
const queue = createAsyncQueue()
 
// wait 300ms, then log '1', '2', and wait 200ms, then log '3', '4'
queue.push(() => wait(300).then(() => {
  console.log('1')
}))
 
queue.push(() => {
  console.log('2')
})
 
queue.push(async () => {
  await wait(200)
  console.log('3')
})
 
queue.push(() => {
  console.log('4')
})

Handle promise completion

queue.push() itself also returns a Promise to handle the completion of its callback function.

The returned Promise will be resolved right after the completion of the Promise which is returned from callback function.

import {createAsyncQueue} from 'asynchronous-queue'
 
const wait = (ms: number) => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms))
 
const queue = createAsyncQueue()
 
// log 'start', then wait 500(300+200)ms, then log 'end'
const start = async () => {
 
  console.log('start')
 
  queue.push(() => wait(300))
  await queue.push(() => wait(200))
 
  console.log('end')
 
}
 
start()

Chaining

If callback function returns a value, it will be the resolved value of the Promise returned from queue.push() itself and also will be passed to the next callback function.

Optionally, createAsyncQueue() accepts the value to pass to the very first callback function as its argument.

import {createAsyncQueue} from 'asynchronous-queue'
 
const wait = (ms: number) => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms))
 
const queue = createAsyncQueue('1st')
 
// log '1st', log '1st2nd', and log '1st2nd3rd'
const start = async () => {
 
  // res1 = '1st2nd'
  const res1 = await queue.push(async arg => {
    await wait(300)
    console.log(arg) // '1st'
    return arg + '2nd'
  })
 
  // res2 = '1st2nd3rd'
  const res2 = await queue.push(async arg => {
    await wait(200)
    console.log(arg) // '1st2nd'
    return arg + '3rd'
  })
 
  console.log(res2)
 
}
 
start()

Error handling

It is important to handle possible rejections properly at the time the callback function is pushing to the queue because queue.push() will implicitly handle rejections by adding .catch block to prevent all of following callback functions from being rejected.

This means that any UnhandledPromiseRejection will never be thrown even if the Promise returned from callback rejected without any handling.

To handle rejections on-the-fly, simply add .catch block for the Promise from queue.push() or use try await ~ catch clause.

import {createAsyncQueue} from 'asynchronous-queue'
 
const queue = createAsyncQueue()
 
const start = async () => {
 
  // error handling with .catch
  queue.push(() => Promise.reject('with .catch')).catch((e) => {
    console.log(e)
  })
 
  // queue works properly even if former task was rejected
  queue.push(() => {
    console.log('it works')
  })
 
  // with try ~ catch clause
  try {
    await queue.push(() => Promise.reject('with try~catch'))
  } catch (e) {
    console.log(e)
  }
 
}
 
start()

Typing

For safely typed chaining, type of the argument and return value can be specified optionally.

import {createAsyncQueue} from 'asynchronous-queue'
 
// queue.push() accepts any type of function
const queue = createAsyncQueue()
 
queue.push(() => true)
queue.push(async () => true)
 
// typed.push() only accepts function typed as (value: string) => string
// then very first argument value must be specified
const typed = createAsyncQueue<string>('1st')
 
typed.push(arg => arg + '2nd')
typed.push(async arg => arg + '3rd')