Asynchronous Programming

Returning a Future using a Completer

Future<Results> costlyQuery() {
  var completer = new Completer();

  database.query("SELECT * FROM giant_table", (results) {
    // when complete
    completer.complete(results);
  }, (error) {
    completer.completeException(error);
  });

  // this returns essentially immediately,
  // before query is finished
  return completer.future; 
}

Async and Await

import 'dart:async';

Future main() async {
  var value = await _waitForValue();
  print("Here is the value: $value");
  //since _waitForValue() returns immediately if you un it without await you won't get the result
  var errorValue = "not finished yet";
  _waitForValue();
  print("Here is the error value: $value");// not finished yet
}

Future<int> _waitForValue() => new Future((){

  var n = 100000000;

  // Do some long process
  for (var i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
    // Print out progress:
    if ([n / 2, n / 4, n / 10, n / 20].contains(i)) {
      print("Not done yet...");
    }

    // Return value when done.
    if (i == n) {
      print("Done.");
      return i;
    }
  }
});

See example on Dartpad: https://dartpad.dartlang.org/11d189b51e0f2680793ab3e16e53613c

Converting callbacks to Futures

Dart has a robust async library, with Future, Stream, and more. However, sometimes you might run into an asynchronous API that uses callbacks instead of Futures. To bridge the gap between callbacks and Futures, Dart offers the Completer class. You can use a Completer to convert a callback into a Future.

Completers are great for bridging a callback-based API with a Future-based API. For example, suppose your database driver doesn’t use Futures, but you need to return a Future. Try this code:

  // A good use of a Completer.

  Future doStuff() {
    Completer completer = new Completer();
    runDatabaseQuery(sql, (results) {
      completer.complete(results);
    });
    return completer.future;
  }

If you are using an API that already returns a Future, you do not need to use a Completer.