Promise chaining

The then method of a promise returns a new promise.

const promise = new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 5000));

promise
    // 5 seconds later
    .then(() => 2)
    // returning a value from a then callback will cause
    // the new promise to resolve with this value
    .then(value => { /* value === 2 */ });

Returning a Promise from a then callback will append it to the promise chain.

function wait(millis) {
    return new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, millis));
}

const p = wait(5000).then(() => wait(4000)).then(() => wait(1000));
p.then(() => { /* 10 seconds have passed */ });

A catch allows a rejected promise to recover, similar to how catch in a try/catch statement works. Any chained then after a catch will execute its resolve handler using the value resolved from the catch.

const p = new Promise(resolve => {throw 'oh no'});
p.catch(() => 'oh yes').then(console.log.bind(console));  // outputs "oh yes"

If there are no catch or reject handlers in the middle of the chain, a catch at the end will capture any rejection in the chain:

p.catch(() => Promise.reject('oh yes'))
  .then(console.log.bind(console))      // won't be called
  .catch(console.error.bind(console));  // outputs "oh yes"

On certain occasions, you may want to “branch” the execution of the functions. You can do it by returning different promises from a function depending on the condition. Later in the code, you can merge all of these branches into one to call other functions on them and/or to handle all errors in one place.

promise
    .then(result => {          
        if (result.condition) {
            return handlerFn1() 
                .then(handlerFn2);
        } else if (result.condition2) {
            return handlerFn3()
                .then(handlerFn4);
        } else {
            throw new Error("Invalid result");
        }
    })
    .then(handlerFn5)
    .catch(err => {
        console.error(err);
    });

Thus, the execution order of the functions looks like:

promise --> handlerFn1 -> handlerFn2 --> handlerFn5 ~~> .catch()
         |                            ^
         V                            |
         -> handlerFn3 -> handlerFn4 -^

The single catch will get the error on whichever branch it may occur.

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

Table Of Contents