I get the following error:
A value of type 'Future<int>' can't be assigned to a variable of type 'int'
It might be another type instead of int, but basically the pattern is:
A value of type 'Future<T>' can't be assigned to a variable of type 'T'
So:
What exactly is a Future?
How do I get the actual value I want to get?
What widget do I use to display my value when all I have is a Future<T>?
In case you are familiar with Task<T> or Promise<T> and the async/ await pattern, then you can skip right to the "How to use a Future with the widgets in Flutter" section.
What is a Future and how do I use it?
Well, the documentation says:
An object representing a delayed computation.
That is correct. It's also a little abstract and dry. Normally, a function returns a result. Sequentially. The function is called, runs and returns it's result. Until then, the caller waits. Some functions, especially when they access resources like hardware or network, take a little time to do so. Imagine an avatar picture being loaded from a web server, a user's data being loaded from a database or just the texts of the app in multiple languages being loaded from device memory. That might be slow.
Most applications by default have a single flow of control. When this flow is blocked, for example by waiting for a computation or resource access that takes time, the application just freezes. You may remember this as standard if you are old enough, but in today's world that would be seen as a bug. Even if something takes time, we get a little animation. A spinner, an hourglass, maybe a progress bar. But how can an application run and show an animation and yet still wait for the result? The answer is: asynchronous operations. Operations that still run while your code waits for something. Now how does the compiler know, whether it should actually stop everything and wait for a result or continue with all the background work and wait only in this instance? Well, it cannot figure that out on it's own. We have to tell it.
This is achieved through a pattern known as async and await. It's not specific to flutter or dart, it exists under the same name in many other languages. You can find the documentation for Dart here.
Since a method that takes some time cannot return immediately, it will return the promise of delivering a value when it's done.
That is called a Future. So the promise to load a number from the database would return a Future<int> while the promise to return a list of movies from an internet search might return a Future<List<Movie>>. A Future<T> is something that in the future will give you a T.
Lets try a different explanation:
A future represents the result of an asynchronous operation, and can have two states: uncompleted or completed.
Most likely, as you aren't doing this just for fun, you actually need the results of that Future<T> to progress in your application. You need to display the number from the database or the list of movies found. So you want to wait, until the result is there. This is where await comes in:
Future<List<Movie>> result = loadMoviesFromSearch(input);
// right here, you need the result. So you wait for it:
List<Movie> movies = await result;
But wait, haven't we come full circle? Aren't we waiting on the result again? Yes, indeed we are. Programs would be utterly chaotic if they did not have some resemblence of sequential flow. But the point is that using the keyword await we have told the compiler, that at this point, while we want to wait for the result, we do not want our application to just freeze. We want all the other running operations like for example animations to continue.
However, you can only use the await keyword in functions that themselves are marked as async and return a Future<T>. Because when you await something, then the function that is awaiting can no longer return their result immediately. You can only return what you have, if you have to wait for it, you have to return a promise to deliver it later.
Future<Pizza> getPizza() async {
Future<PizzaBox> delivery = orderPizza();
var pizzaBox = await delivery;
var pizza = pizzaBox.unwrap();
return pizza;
}
Our getPizza function has to wait for the pizza, so instead of returning Pizza immediately, it has to return the promise that a pizza will be there in the future. Now you can, in turn, await the getPizza function somewhere.
How to use a Future with the widgets in Flutter?
All the widgets in flutter expect real values. Not some promise of a value to come at a later time. When a button needs a text, it cannot use a promise that text will come later. It needs to display the button now, so it needs the text now.
But sometimes, all you have is a Future<T>. That is where FutureBuilder comes in. You can use it when you have a future, to display one thing while you are waiting for it (for example a progress indicator) and another thing when it's done (for example the result).
Let's take a look at our pizza example. You want to order pizza, you want a progress indicator while you wait for it, you want to see the result once it's delivered, and maybe show an error message when there is an error:
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() {
runApp(MyApp());
}
/// ordering a pizza takes 5 seconds
/// and then gives you a pizza salami with extra cheese
Future<String> orderPizza() {
return Future<String>.delayed(
const Duration(seconds: 5),
() async => 'Pizza Salami, Extra Cheese');
}
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
theme: ThemeData.dark(),
home: Scaffold(
body: Center(
child: PizzaOrder(),
),
),
);
}
}
class PizzaOrder extends StatefulWidget {
#override
_PizzaOrderState createState() => _PizzaOrderState();
}
class _PizzaOrderState extends State<PizzaOrder> {
Future<String>? delivery;
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Column(
crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.center,
mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.spaceEvenly,
children: [
ElevatedButton(
onPressed: delivery != null
? null
: () => setState(() {
delivery = orderPizza();
}),
child: const Text('Order Pizza Now')
),
delivery == null
? const Text('No delivery scheduled')
: FutureBuilder(
future: delivery,
builder: (context, snapshot) {
if(snapshot.hasData) {
return Text('Delivery done: ${snapshot.data}');
} else if(snapshot.hasError) {
return Text('Delivery error: ${snapshot.error.toString()}');
} else {
return const CircularProgressIndicator();
}
})
]);
}
}
This is how you use a FutureBuilder to display the result of your future once you have it.
Here's a list of analogies to Dart's Future from other languages:
JS: Promise
Java: Future
Python: Future
C#: Task
Just like in other languages Future is a special type of object which allows to use async/await syntax sugar, write asynchronous code in synchronous/linear way. You return Future from an async method rather than accept a callback as a parameter and avoid the callback hell - both Futures and callbacks solve same problems (firing some code at a latter time) but in a different way.
Future<T> returning the potential value which will be done by async work
Eg:
Future<int> getValue() async {
return Future.value(5);
}
Above code is returning Future.value(5) which is of int type, but while receiving the value from method we can't use type Future<int> i.e
Future<int> value = await getValue(); // Not Allowed
// Error
A value of type 'Future<int>' can't be assigned to a variable of type 'int'
To solve above getValue() should be received under int type
int value = await getValue(); // right way as it returning the potential value.
I hope this key point will be informative, I show it in two different Async methods:
Note the following method where showLoading(), getAllCarsFromApi() and hideLoading() are inner Async methods.
If I put the await keyword before showLoading(), the Operation waits until it's done then goes to the next line but I intentionally removed the await because I need my Loading dialog be displayed simultaneously with getAllCarsFromApi() is being processed, so it means showLoading() and getAllCarsFromApi() methods are processed on different Threads. Finally hideLoading() hides the loading dialog.
Future<List<Car>> getData() async{
showLoading();
final List<Car> cars = await getAllCarsFromApi();
hideLoading();
return cars;
}
Now look at this another Async method, here the getCarByIdFromApi() method needs an id which is calculated from the getCarIdFromDatabase(), so there must be an await keyword before the first method to make the Operation wait until id is calculated and passed to the second method. So here two methods are processed one after another and in a single Thread.
Future<Car> getCar() async{
int id = await getCarIdFromDatabase();
final Car car = await getCarByIdFromApi(id);
return car;
}
A simple answer is that if a function returns its value with a delay of some time, Future is used to get its value.
Future<int> calculate({required int val1, required int val2}) async {
await Future.delayed(const Duration(seconds: 2));
return val1 + val2;
}
if we call the above function as
getTotal() async {
int result = calculate(val1: 5, val2: 5);
print(result);
}
we will get the following error:
A value of type 'Future<int>' can't be assigned to a variable of type 'int'
but if we use await before function call it will give the actual returned value from the function after a delay
getTotal() async {
int result = await calculate(val1: 5, val2: 5);
print(result);
}
the keyword async is required to use await for the Future to get returned value
I am trying to give very simple example. Suppose you have ordered something online, let it be a shirt. then you have to wait until the order is dispatched and delivered to your home. In the meanwhile you will not stop working your daily activities/work anything you do and after a day if it delivered to your home you will collect it and wear it. Now, look at the following example.
Ok, now let's make a function which handles our order delivery.(Read Comments Also)
//order function which will book our order and return our order(which is our shirt). don't focus on Order object type just focus on how this function work and you will get to know about future definitely.
Future<Order> orderSomething(){
//here our order processing and it will return our order after 24 hrs :)
await Future.delayed(const Duration(hours: 24),() => Order('data'));
}
Now
void main() {
//now here you have called orderSomething() and you dont want to wait for it to be delivered
//you are not dependent on your order to do your other activities
// so when your order arrives you will get to know
orderSomething()
wearSomething()
goingCollege()
}
Now if you are dependent on your order then you have to add await async ( i will show you where)
void main() async{
//now you're dependent on your order you want to wait for your order
await orderSomething()
wearOrderedShirt() // :)
goingCollege()
}
Now most of the times in flutter applications you will have to await for your API calls(Network), for background task for downloading/uploading, for database calls etc.
Related
I am trying to design an observable task-like entity which would have the following properties:
Reports its current state changes reactively
Shares state and result events: new subscribers will also be notified if the change happens after they've subscribed
Has a lifecycle (backed by CoroutineScope)
Doesn't have suspend functions in the interface (because it has a lifecycle)
The very basic code is something like this:
class Worker {
enum class State { Running, Idle }
private val state = MutableStateFlow(State.Idle)
private val results = MutableSharedFlow<String>()
private val scope = CoroutineScope(Dispatchers.Default)
private suspend fun doWork(): String {
println("doing work")
return "Result of the work"
}
fun start() {
scope.launch {
state.value = State.Running
results.emit(doWork())
state.value = State.Idle
}
}
fun state(): Flow<State> = state
fun results(): Flow<String> = results
}
The problems with this arise when I want to "start the work after I'm subscribed". There's no clear way to do that. The simplest thing doesn't work (understandably):
fun main() {
runBlocking {
val worker = Worker()
// subscriber 1
launch {
worker.results().collect { println("received result $it") }
}
worker.start()
// subscriber 2 can also be created "later" and watch
// for state()/result() changes
}
}
This prints only "doing work" and never prints a result. I understand why this happens (because collect and start are in separate coroutines, not synchronized in any way).
Adding a delay(300) to coroutine inside doWork "fixes" things, results are printed, but I'd like this to work without artificial delays.
Another "solution" is to create a SharedFlow from results() and use its onSubscription to call start(), but that didn't work either last time I've tried.
My questions are:
Can this be turned into something that works or is this design initially flawed?
If it is flawed, can I take some other approach which would still hit all the goals I have specified in the beginning of the post?
Your problem is that your SharedFlow has no buffer set up, so it is emitting results to its (initially zero) current collectors and immediately forgetting them. The MutableSharedFlow() function has a replay parameter you can use to determine how many previous results it should store and replay to new collectors. You will need to decide what replay amount to use based on your use case for this class. For simply displaying latest results in a UI, a common choice is a replay of 1.
Depending on your use case, you may want to give your CoroutineScope a SupervisorJob() in its context so it isn't destroyed by any child job failing.
Side note, your state() and results() functions should be properties by Kotlin convention, since they do nothing but return references. Personally, I would also have them return read-only StateFlow/SharedFlow instead of just Flow to clarify that they are not cold.
I have this code snippet:
const historicalDataTable = await findElementByClass(
"table",
elementClass,
page
); // This is a custom function I wrote. Works as expected.
const tableBody = await historicalDataTable.$eval(
"tbody",
(el) => el.children.length
);
console.log(tableBody);
This works as expected and returns the correct amount of children. However when I do
const tableBody = await historicalDataTable.$eval(
"tbody",
(el) => el.children
);
And remove the length, it returns undefined. What is going on here?
el.children (Element#children) will yield an HTMLCollection which is not serializable and can't be marshalled from the page's execution context into yours, so evaluate returns undefined instead.
Now, this isn't fully obvious when looking at the elementHandle.$eval docs as the only indication is that the return value is <Promise<Serializable>>, but it becomes clear from the executionContext.evaluate docs:
returns: <Promise<Serializable>> Promise which resolves to the return value of pageFunction
[...]
If the function passed to the executionContext.evaluate returns a non-Serializable value, then executionContext.evaluate resolves to undefined. DevTools Protocol also supports transferring some additional values that are not serializable by JSON: -0, NaN, Infinity, -Infinity, and bigint literals.
(Emphasis mine.)
el.children.length (HTMLCollection#length) on the other hand is a simple number which is serializable.
You have to do whatever you want to do with those elements inside of your pageFunction and return only some serializable value.
Alternatively, you could also use elementHandle.evaluateHandle to return a JSHandle to the HTMLCollection and use that handle later in another call to an evaluate-type function. (Note that that would be the only thing you can do with it though. You couldn't access .length for example from your own execution context, only from another pageFunction1.)
1: This is not entirely true, since you could for example use jsHandle.getProperty to get another JSHandle for the length, followed by jsHandle.jsonValue to get the value as number - but both of these operations are asynchronous and probably it's a lot more efficient to write your code in such a way that you can handle all the necessary operations inside the page's execution context in the first place, without too many context switches.
I'm playing around with reactive flows using RxJava2, Micronaut and Cassandra. I'm new to rxjava and not sure what is the correct way to return a of List Person in the best async manner?
data is coming from a Cassandra Dao interface
public interface PersonDAO {
#Query("SELECT * FROM cass_drop.person;")
CompletionStage<MappedAsyncPagingIterable<Person>> getAll();
}
that gets injected into a micronaut controller
return Single.just(personDAO.getAll().toCompletableFuture().get().currentPage())
.subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
.map(people -> HttpResponse.ok(people));
OR
return Single.just(HttpResponse.ok())
.subscribeOn(Schedulers.io())
.map(it -> it.body(personDAO.getAll().toCompletableFuture().get().currentPage()));
OR switch to RxJava3
return Single.fromCompletionStage(personDAO.getAll())
.map(page -> HttpResponse.ok(page.currentPage()))
.onErrorReturn(throwable -> HttpResponse.ok(Collections.emptyList()));
Not a pro of RxJava nor Cassandra :
In your first and second example, you are blocking the thread executing the CompletionStage with get, even if you are doing it in the IO thread, I would not recommand doing so.
You are also using a Single wich can emit, only one value, or an error. Since you want to return a List, I would sugest to go for at least an Observable.
Third point, the result from Cassandra is paginated, I don't know if it's intentionnaly but you list only the first page, and miss the others.
I would try a solution like the one below, I kept using the IO thread (the operation may be costly in IO) and I iterate over the pages Cassandra fetch :
/* the main method of your controller */
#Get()
public Observable<Person> listPersons() {
return next(personDAO.getAll()).subscribeOn(Schedulers.io());
}
private Observable<Person> next(CompletionStage<MappedAsyncPagingIterable<Person>> pageStage) {
return Single.fromFuture(pageStage.toCompletableFuture())
.flatMapObservable(personsPage -> {
var o = Observable.fromIterable(personsPage.currentPage());
if (!personsPage.hasMorePages()) {
return o;
}
return o.concatWith(next(personsPage.fetchNextPage()));
});
}
If you ever plan to use reactor instead of RxJava, then you can give cassandra-java-driver-reactive-mapper a try.
The syntax is fairly simple and works in compile-time only.
I have a function which uses Anko's async in order to call Google's Distance API and get the distance from one location to another. unfortunately i don't know how to get the data from inside the async and pass it to another function. the code looks something like this
fun getDistance(location1:LatLng,location2:LatLng){
async{
val result = URL(url).readtext()
uithread{
//Parser
//distance value
}
}
}
I'd like to also mention im really new to kotlin or android development in general, please be kind.
There are a number of ways to tackle this; pass an object to the function with your array in it that gets rearranged in your function, or go with something like:
fun getDistance(location1 : LatLng, location2 : LatLng, f: (Long) -> Unit){
doAsync{ // Anko is deprecated as I have been made aware
val result = URL(url).readtext()
val distance : Long = // parse result
uiThread{
f(distance)
}
}
}
and call that with
getDistance(loc1, loc2) { toast("The found distance was $it") }
This is by no means the only way to go; you could update a larger-scoped variable, call a listener, put your lat-longs in a class with updating functions that are called, or a bunch of other ways that I am too lazy to think about :)
So, let's say I need to get a list of favorite books for an Android app.
I have the list of ids, but I can only get one book at a time, so, I don't really have a bookAPI.getFavoriteBooks(listOfFavoriteIds) method call (the server doesn't have an endpoint for that), but instead I'd have to call bookAPI.getBook(id) for each id in the list to get all the favorite books, and after I get them I should return a list with the results.
The answers I've found so far assume that there's a method Observable<List<Book>> getFavoriteBooks(List<Integer> ids)I could call, but in this case I don't have that.
Is there a way of solving this question using RxAndroid and Retrofit 2?
It's hard to say from your question if this fits your needs, but you could try:
Observable.fromIterable(listOfIds)
.flatMap(new Function<Integer, ObservableSource<Book>>() {
#Override
public ObservableSource<Book> apply(Integer integer)
throws Exception {
return bookApi.getBook(id);
}
})
.toList()
Let me explain what's happening here. fromIterable creates an observable that emits each element in the iterable as an event. In this case it will emit each book id.
You then flat map said observable to your api observable. So in this case you're mapping each emitted Id to an observable that emits each book from the api.
Finally, you collect all the emitted books as a list. Once you subscribe to this stream it will have a list as a single event:
// whatever way you get the above stream
.subscribe(new Consumer<List<Book>>() {
#Override
public void accept(List<Book> result) throws Exception {
// do whatever you want with result
}
});
Just make sure to use the right schedulers for your use case.
(Careful because this subscribe call doesn't handle errors, but I guess you can figure that out pretty easily)