Execute array of observables in sequence based on condition - rxjs

Given an array of observables where each observable can emit EMPTY, how can I execute the next observable in the array on the condition that the previous observable returned EMPTY or stop iterating the array and return a non EMPTY value once an observable in the array has emitted the first non EMPTY value?

Here would be one approach:
const emptyVal = Symbol('empty');
const src$ = concat(
...arrOfObservable.map(
obs$ => obs$.pipe(
last(null, emptyVal)
)
)
).pipe(
filter(v => v !== emptyVal),
first()
)
The last() operator will emit the last emitted value, after the source completes. If there is no last value(obs$ has used EMPTY), it will emit emptyVal.
filter(v => v !== emptyVal) will make sure that we keep iterating until we get a non empty value.
With first(), we'd stop the iteration and we'd get the emitted value.
Note: this approach works if the obs$ completes at some time, otherwise last won't be able to do its job.

Related

RxJS withLatestFrom skips initial Subject value

In the following example, for whatever reason, initial value is ignored.
const frameRateSubject: BehaviorSubject<number> = new BehaviorSubject(24);
const loadedMetadata$: Observable<Event> = fromEvent(this.videoElement, 'loadedmetadata');
frameRateSubject.asObservable()
.pipe(
withLatestFrom(loadedMetadata$), // by commenting out this line, both 24 and 20 values are received
tap(([frameRate]: [number, Event]) => {
// initial value of 24 is never received, why is it?
console.log('frameRateSubject', frameRate)
})
)
.subscribe();
setTimeout(() => {
frameRateSubject.next(20)
}, 10000)
Any ideas why?
withLatestFrom combines the source observable (here frameRateSubject$) with other streams (loadedMetadata$) and emits values calculated from the latest values of each, only when the source emits.
But in your case loadedMetadata$ hasn't emitted when frameRateSubject$ emits 24. So the value is skipped.
CombineLatest is most likely the operator you are looking for here.

Collect Emitted Values in a Sequence

I have 2 observables A and B which can emit at any time. But only when A emits a new value and then B emits a new value too, I collect these 2 values. If B just emits new values without A emitting new values first, I don't collect any values.
I know concatMap might be useful but it needs the previous observable to complete whereas in my case neither ever completes until everything is destroyed.
This can be modelled as projecting each element of A into the first arriving element of B, discarding any previous subscription to B when a new A arrives, e.g.:
A.pipe(
switchMap(x => B.pipe(
first(),
map(y => ({ a: x, b: y }))
)
)

Using concat inside mergeMap

I have a hard time understanding something related to using a concat function inside a mergeMap operator.
The documentation for concat says that
You can pass either an array of Observables, or put them directly as arguments.
When I put the Observables directly as arguments, like in the following example, I correctly get 20 and 24 in the console.
of(4)
.pipe(
mergeMap(number => concat(of(5 * number), of(6 * number)))
)
.subscribe(value => console.log(value));
But when I put them as an array, then in the console I get the Observables and not their values:
of(4)
.pipe(
mergeMap(number => concat([of(5 * number), of(6 * number)]))
)
.subscribe(value => console.log(value));
Here's a live version in Stackblitz.
Any idea why is that? Shouldn't both examples work identically?
Those two scenarios are different and they should not work identically. concat takes Observables as arguments and it will sequentially subscribe to those streams and only subscribe to the next Observable when the previous one completed. Every operator or creation method returns an Observable. This means that in the first example, when you are using concat, it will return an Observable that emits 20 and then 24. Because you are dealing with a nested Observable you have to use mergeMap which will subscribe to the resulting Observable returned by concat.
Now in the second example, if you pass in an array, concat will convert this (using from() internally) to an Observable that emits 2 values, and those values are Observables again. So you have 3 levels of nesting here. The first is the most outer Observable, the source, which of(4), the second level is the one you map to inside your mergeMap and the third in the second example are the Observables inside your array. The thing is you only flatten the levels up to level 2 but not the 3rd level. Again, in your second example the Observable returned by mergeMap emits two Observables but those are just the proxies and not the values emitted by these Observables. If you want to subscribe to those as well, you could chain on another mergeMap like so
concatArray() {
of(4)
.pipe(
mergeMap(number => concat([of(5 * number), of(6 * number)])),
mergeMap(x => x)
)
.subscribe(value => console.log(value));
}
Another way is to spread the array so that concat does not receive an object that is ArrayLike but rather Observables directly:
concatArray() {
of(4)
.pipe(
mergeMap(number => concat(...[of(5 * number), of(6 * number)]))
)
.subscribe(value => console.log(value));
}
Both will print out:
20
24
I hope this makes this a little bit more clear and describes the differences between the first and the second example.

What is the difference between skipWhile and filter in RxJS?

As title suggest, both function seems to have similar effect and return emit nothing when predicate does not match. It looks like skipWhile is the reverse of filter ?
As #cartant says
skipWhile "... emits all further source items as soon as the condition becomes false"
Note that skipWhile takes a predicate (expression that returns a boolean).
In addition there is also skipUntil, which this takes an observable and values will be skipped until that observable emits anything.
So sometimes the following can be useful (pan is a hammerjs event btw.):
// When event.deltaX reaches 20 emit true to indicate a threshold is reached
const thresholdReached$ = pan$.pipe(map(e => Math.abs(e.deltaX) > 20 ), first(v => v), shareReplay(1));
// Emit all events, but skip them until the first time that thresholdReached$ emits
const panMove$ = pan$.pipe(skipUntil(thresholdReached$));
Important to realize that the observable passed to skipUntil can emit any value to trigger the skipping to stop. It doesn't have to be a 'truthy' value.
So if you have var b = new BehaviorSubject(false) then skipUntil(b) will immediately stop skipping and you will quickly get very confused!

'of' vs 'from' operator

Is the only difference between Observable.of and Observable.from the arguments format? Like the Function.prototype.call and Function.prototype.apply?
Observable.of(1,2,3).subscribe(() => {})
Observable.from([1,2,3]).subscribe(() => {})
It is important to note the difference between of and from when passing an array-like structure (including strings):
Observable.of([1, 2, 3]).subscribe(x => console.log(x));
would print the whole array at once.
On the other hand,
Observable.from([1, 2, 3]).subscribe(x => console.log(x));
prints the elements 1 by 1.
For strings the behaviour is the same, but at character level.
Not quite. When passing an array to Observable.from, the only difference between it and Observable.of is the way the arguments are passed.
However, Observable.from will accept an argument that is
a subscribable object, a Promise, an Observable-like, an Array, an iterable or an array-like object to be converted
There is no similar behaviour for Observable.of - which always accepts only values and performs no conversion.
One line Difference :
let fruits = ['orange','apple','banana']
from : Emit the items one by one of array. For example
from(fruits).subscribe(console.log) // 'orange','apple','banana'
of : Emit the whole array at once. For example
of(fruits).subscribe(console.log) // ['orange','apple','banana']
NOTE: of operator can behave as from operator with spread operator
of(...fruits).subscribe(console.log) // 'orange','apple','banana'
Another interesting fact is Observable.of([]) will be an empty array when you subscribe to it.
Where as when you subscribe to Observable.from([]) you wont get any value.
This is important when you do a consecutive operation with switchmap.
Ex:
In the below example, I am saving a job and then sites, and then comments as a stream.
.do((data) => {
this.jobService.save$.next(this.job.id);
})
.switchMap(() => this.jobService.addSites(this.job.id, this.sites)
.flatMap((data) => {
if (data.length > 0) {
// get observables for saving
return Observable.forkJoin(jobSiteObservables);
} else {
**return Observable.of([]);**
}
})).do((result) => {
// ..
})
.switchMap(() => this.saveComments())
....
if there's no site to save, ie; data.length = 0 in addSite section, the above code is returning Observable.of([]) and then goes to save comments. But if you replace it with Observable.from([]), the succeeding methods will not get called.
rxfiddle
of will emit all values at once
from will emit all values one by one
of with spread operator = from operator
from: Create observable from array, promise or iterable. Takes only one value. For arrays, iterables and strings, all contained values will be emitted as a sequence
const values = [1, 2, 3];
from(values); // 1 ... 2 ... 3
of: Create observable with variable amounts of values, emit values in sequence, but arrays as single value
const values = [1, 2, 3];
of(values, 'hi', 4, 5); // [1, 2, 3] ... 'hi' ... 4 ... 5
from returns notification in chunks i.e. one by one.
for eg: from("abcde") will return a => b => c => d => e
of returns complete notification.
for eg: of("abcde") will return abcde.
https://stackblitz.com/edit/typescript-sckwsw?file=index.ts&devtoolsheight=100
The from operator takes source of events. from(source)
let array = [1,2,3,4,5]
from(array); //where array is source of events, array[of events]
let promise = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
// executor (the producing code, "singer")
});
from(promise); //where promise is source of event, promise(of event)
let observable = Observable.create(function(observer) {
observer.next(1);
observer.next(2);
observer.next(3);
observer.next(4);
observer.next(5);
observer.complete();
});
from(observable); // where obsservable is source of events.
The of operator takes intividual events. of(event1, event2, event3)
of(1,2,3,4,5); // where 1,2,3,4,5 are individual events
I found it easier to remember the difference when the analogy with .call / .apply methods came into my mind.
You can think of it this way:
normally, all arguments, that are passed separately (separated by comma), are also emitted separately, in the order they were passed. of() just emits all arguments one by one as they are (like .call method passes arguments to the function it was called on)
from() is like .apply in a sense that it can take an array of values as an argument, and convert array elements into separate arguments, separated by comma.
So, if you have an array and want each element to be emitted separately, you can use from() or get the same behavior by using of() with spread operator, like of(...arr).
It's bit more complicated then that (from can also take observables) but with this analogy it will probably be easier to remember the main difference.
Yes it is true that of will result in an output in single go and from will happen one at a time. But there is more difference related to number of arguments and type of arguments.
You can pass any number of arguments to the Of. Each argument emitted separately and one after the other. It sends the Complete signal in the end.
However you can send only one argument to the from operator and that one argument should be a type of
an Array,
anything that behaves like an array
Promise
any iterable object
collections
any observable like object
For example you can send a raw object like
myObj={name:'Jack',marks:100}
to of operator to convert to Observable.
obj$:Observable<any> = of(myObj);
but you can not send this raw object myObj to from operator simply because it is not iterable or array like collection.
for more detail : visit here
from operator may accept one of
promises
iterable
arrays
observable
from emits each individual item from the observable , can also do conversions.
of operator takes in the raw value and emits the value from the observable.
import {from, Observable, of} from 'rxjs';
const ofObs = of([1,2,3]);
const fromObs = from([2,3,4]);
const basicObs = Observable.create(observer=>{
observer.next(100);
observer.next(200);
observer.next(300);
})
const promise = new Promise((resolve,reject)=>{
resolve(100);
})
const array = [1,2,3];
const iterbale = "Dhana";
// const myObs = from(ofObs);//possible and can emit individual item value everytime 1, then ,2 , then 3
// const myObs = from(fromObs);//possbile and can emit individual item value everytime 1, then ,2 , then 3
// const myObs = from(basicObs);//possbile and can emit individual item value everytime 100, then ,200 , then 300
const myObs = from(promise);//possible can emit value 100
// const myObs = array(promise);//possible and can emit individual item value everytime 1, then ,2 , then 3
// const myObs = iterable(promise);//possible and can emit individual item value everytime D then h then a then n then a
myObs.subscribe(d=>console.log(d))
import {from, of} from 'rxjs';
const basicOf1 = of([1,2,3,4,5,6]) // emits entire array of events
const basicfrom1 = from([1,2,3,4,5,6]) //emits each event at a time
const basicOf2 = of(1,2,3,4,5,6) // emits each event at a time
// const basicfrom2 = from(1,2,3,4,5,6) //throws error
//Uncaught TypeError: number is not observable
const basicOf3 = of(...[1,2,3,4,5,6]) // emits each event at a time
const basicfrom3 = from(...[1,2,3,4,5,6]) //throws error
//Uncaught TypeError: number is not observable
basicOf3.subscribe(d=>console.log(d))
Here is the link to codepen

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