In what cases take operator is actually used? - rxjs

I would like to understand why take operator is used in code given below.
private _places = new BehaviorSubject<Place[]>(
// places for initialization
);
get places() {
return this._places.asObservable();
}
addPlace(title: string, description: string, price: number)
{
generatedId: string;
newPlace: Place;
// code to initialize newPlace
return this.http.post<{name: string}>(
'https://ionic-angular-ef2f8.firebaseio.com/offered-places.json',
{...newPlace, id: null})
.pipe(
switchMap(response => {
generatedId = response.name;
return this.places;
}),
take(1),
tap(places => {
newPlace.id = generatedId;
this._places.next(places.concat(newPlace));
})
);
}
post request returns an Observable, and we get a value from it in switchMap operator (note that we do not take a value before calling switchMap). In switchMap we replace the observable with a new observable got from _places, a BehaviourSubject object. After switchMap we use take operator.
Why don't we skip take operator, and use tap straight off? Do we take a value from an observable, because the observable is generated from a subject? Who can explain the use case of take operator in details?
UPDATE
I suspect that the reason I should use take operator after switchMap is that switchMap returns an observable received from an object of type BehaviorSubject which holds emitted values. One can subscribe to such BehaviorSubject object and take the latest emitted value - that's exactly what I did.

httpClient.post() emits one next notification and one complete notification.
However, they're using switchMap to merge another Observable to the chain (this.places). switchMap() won't complete until its source and the inner Observable complete so they're using take(1) to complete the chain after the first emission from this.places which is a BehaviorSubject that doesn't complete until you deliberately call complete() on it.
This is a very similar use-case to using takeUntil() to complete chains. takeUntil() always has to be the last operator in a chain because completing a source Observable to switchMap(), concatMap(), ... doesn't necessarily complete the whole chain. See this for more details https://medium.com/angular-in-depth/rxjs-avoiding-takeuntil-leaks-fb5182d047ef

Related

Should I use map or switchmap when using angular http module?

I use the following code in an angular app. I used the RxJS map call similar to how array map is used. After reading about RxJS switchmap operator, I'm not sure whether I should use map or switchmap. Should I use switchmap so the observable which is returned from the http call is closed so there is no memory leak?
getPeopleForTypeahead(term: string): Observable<IPersonForTypeahead[]> {
var peopleUrl = `https://localhost:5001/api/peoplesearch?name=${term}`;
return this.http.get<any>(peopleUrl)
.pipe(
map(pl => {
return this.peopleAsFlattened(pl.peopleList).reduce((p, c) => p.concat(c));
}),
catchError(this.handleError('getPeopleForTypeahead', []))
);
}
peopleAsFlattened = (pla: IPeopleList[]) => {
return pla.map(pl => pl.people.map(p => {
return {
id: p.id,
fullName: p.fullNames[0].firstName + " " + p.fullNames[0].lastName
};
}));
}
map and switchMap have completely different purposes:
map - transform the shape of an emission
switchMap - subscribe to an observable and emit its emissions into the stream
map
Use map when you want transform the shape of each emission. Ex: emit the user name property, instead of the entire user object:
userName$: Observable<string> = this.service.getUser(123).pipe(
map(user => user.name)
);
switchMap
Use switchMap when you want to map an emission to another observable and emit its emissions. Ex: You have an observable of some id and want to emit the resource after fetching it:
user$: Observable<User> = this.userId$.pipe(
switchMap(id => this.service.getUser(id)),
);
When user$ is subscribed to, the user returned from service.getUser(id) is emitted (not the userId string).
switchMap is not interchangeable with the map operator, nor vise versa. Although both of them has to do with mapping (as their names suggest), they have two separate use-cases.
In your particular case, the map operator is the way to go.
When to use switchMap?
You can only use switchMap(cb) when you check all these requirements:
Your callback function, cb, passed into switchMap returns an observable, observable$.
If your cb (callback function) does not return an observable, you should look into operators that don't handle higher-level observables, such as filter and map (what you actually needed); not operators that handle higher-level observables such as concatMap and well, switchMap.
You want to execute your cb sequentially before the next operation down the pipeline (after switchMap) executes.
Maybe you want to run logic inside of cb, and optionally get the return value of cb after executing, so that you can pass it down the pipeline for further processing, for example.
When you want to "discard" what will happen to cb's execution and re-execute cb every time the source observable (the thing that trickles down to switchMap(cb)) emits a new value/notification.
Applying what we hopefully learned, we know that your cb:
pl => {
return this.peopleAsFlattened(pl.peopleList).reduce((p, c) => p.concat(c));
}
returns a plain JavaScript array; not an observable. This takes using switchMap out of the question since it violates the first requirement I made up above.
Hopefully that makes sense. :)
We use switchMap when the source observable is a hot observable. In which case you prefer the behaviour that cancel the succeeding observable when source emits.
In your code, you source is a one-off http call which means it will not emit multiple times and the follow up action is not executing observable but to mutate an array. There is no need to use switchMap

Rxjs observable emit in order

how can i subscribe for example three observables, and to emit when one of them emit new value depend on the order they are, like forkJoin but emit but the order of them is important so if ob3 emit first, i want the value of obv1 to be null, also obv2
and only obv3 that was emitted will have value
for example
forkJoin(obs1,obs2,ob3)
.subscribe([ob1v,ob2v,ob3v]=>{
if (obv1v){ 'do somthing'}
if (obv2v){ 'do somthing'}
if (obv3v){ 'do somthing'}
})
thanks
Maybe combineLatest with an initial value would work for you. combineLatest will emit the latest value from each source observable whenever any of its sources emit. However, it doesn't emit for the first time until all sources have emitted at least one value.
We can use startWith to overcome this by providing an initial value for each source.
combineLatest([
obs1.pipe(startWith(null)),
obs2.pipe(startWith(null)),
obs3.pipe(startWith(null)),
])
.pipe(
skip(1) // prevent emitting initial [null, null, null] value
)
.subscribe(([v1, v2, v3]) => {
// do something here
});
You can see the output in this StackBlitz.
It seems that you want to do different thing for every observable. Maybe you shouldn't gorup them? If you want to group them and do different side effect for every one of them you can do something similar to BizzyBob anwer but instead of having if statements in subscribe use tap() operator for every stream. Something like this:
combineLatest([
obs1.pipe(tap(() => 'do somthing'),
obs2.pipe(tap(() => 'do somthing')),
obs3.pipe(tap(() => 'do somthing')),
])
.subscribe(([v1, v2, v3]) => {
});
Good practise is not to use subscribe method but instead set this stream to some property in component and than use async pipe in the template.

Do the take() and takeUntil() RxJS cause a memory leak?

From the RxJS documentation I see the following example:
const source = interval(1000);
const clicks = fromEvent(document, 'click');
const result = source.pipe(takeUntil(clicks));
result.subscribe(x => console.log(x));
This is close to a code pattern needed for my app but I see a problem. The takeUntil operator subscribes, but as I understand it an Observer has no way to unsubscribe from the source Observable. It has no access to a Subscription object on which it can call unsubscribe().
So if I understand this correctly then once the user clicks the source observable will continue to emit ticks forever to the takeUntil which will consume them and do nothing with them.
Am I reading this correctly? If so is there a generally accepted way to kill the source observable from within the Observer pipe?
What happens with takeUntil is the following.
When the Observable passed to takeUntil as parameter notifies a value, the subscriber of the Observable returned by takeUntil completes and, as a consequence, all the subscriptions created in the pipe chain are unsubscribed one after the other in reverse order.
In simpler words, the unsubscription is performed behind the scene by the RxJs internal mechanisms.
To prove this behavior you can try this code
const source = interval(1000).pipe(
tap({ next: (val) => console.log('source value', val) })
);
const clicks = fromEvent(document, 'click');
const result = source.pipe(takeUntil(clicks));
result.subscribe((x) => console.log(x));
If you run it, you see that the message 'source value', val is printed until the click occurs. After this, no more message is printed on the console, which means that the Observable upstream, i.e. the Observable created by the interval function does not notify any more.
You can try the above code in this stackblitz.
SOME DETAILS ON THE INTERNALS
We can take a look at the internals of the RxJs implementation to see how this unsubscribe behind the scenes works.
Let's start from takeUntil. In its implementation we see a line like this
innerFrom(notifier).subscribe(new OperatorSubscriber(subscriber, () => subscriber.complete(), noop));
which, in essence, says that as soon as the notifier (i.e. the Observable passed to takeUntil as parameter) notifies, the complete method is called on the subscriber.
The invocation of the complete method triggers many things, but eventually it ends up calling the method execTeardown of Subscription which ends up invoking unsubscribe of OperatorSubscriber which itself calls unsubscribe of Subscription.
As we see, the chain is pretty long and complex to follow, but the core message is that the tearDown logic (i.e. the logic which is invoked when an Observable completes, errors or is unsubscribed) calls the unsubscription logic.
Maybe it is useful to look at one more thing, an implementation of a custom operator directly from the RxJs documentation.
In this case, at the end of the definition of the operator, we find this piece of code
// Return the teardown logic. This will be invoked when
// the result errors, completes, or is unsubscribed.
return () => {
subscription.unsubscribe();
// Clean up our timers.
for (const timerID of allTimerIDs) {
clearTimeout(timerID);
}
};
This is the teardown logic for this custom operator and such logic invokes the unsubscribe as well as any other cleanup activity.

Asynchronous equivalent to tap() in RxJS?

I have a side effect Observable that's required to be resolved before the main Observable is completed. If it were a synchronous operation, I could use the tap() operator. Is there a clear equivalent for an asynchronous operation?
In the following example, I have to map the inner value back to the outer value I actually want to pipe through. How would I avoid this mapping?
const user = requestUser().pipe(
switchMap(user => {
return requestAndAssignToken(user)
.pipe(
map(token => user)
);
})
);
If I understand correctly, you want to ignore the result of the inner Observable and just have the outer Observable wait for it to emit before moving on.
In that case, I'd suggest the delayWhen operator. It is passed a delayDurationSelector that returns an Observable (the duration Observable). It then behaves like stated in the documentation:
The source value is emitted on the output Observable only when the duration Observable emits a value or completes
For your example, it would look like this:
const user = requestUser().pipe(
delayWhen(user => requestAndAssignToken(user))
);
Here is a simple example

Unsubscribe first observable in switchmap

I have two observables, the second need the result of the first, so I used switchMap :
this.fooSharer.getFoo().pipe(switchMap((foo: Foo) => {
return this.http.post('/someUrl',
body,
headers
)
}));
So I have in return an Observable of Object (from http.post), but my subscription from the foo Observale is still active and I can't unsubscribe, how can I do ?
If you use emitted value from fooSharer.getFoo() just as a signal to start the second Observable you can put take(1) just before the switchMap.
This way, after the first emitted value the fooSharer.getFoo() will complete.

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