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Understanding the Power of the await Keyword in JavaScript’s Async Functions

Simplify Asynchronous Programming with the Await Keyword: Pausing Execution Made Easy

Max N
3 min readMar 28, 2024
Photo by Joel Filipe on Unsplash

Asynchronous programming in JavaScript has evolved rapidly over the years, and with it, new keywords and techniques have emerged to simplify complex code. One such keyword is await, which plays a crucial role in async functions, allowing developers to pause execution until a promise resolves.

In this article, we'll explore the await keyword in depth, understanding how it works and how it can streamline your asynchronous JavaScript code.

A Primer on Async Functions

Before diving into await, let's quickly review async functions in JavaScript. An async function is a function declared with the async keyword. This declaration enables the use of await within the function, allowing for a more synchronous style of coding in an asynchronous environment.

Async functions implicitly return a promise, and they can contain one or more await expressions, which pause the execution of the function until the awaited promise is resolved. This makes it easier to work with asynchronous code, as it resembles the familiar synchronous programming style.

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Max N
Max N

Written by Max N

A writer that writes about JavaScript and Python to beginners. If you find my articles helpful, feel free to follow.

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