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How to use Waterfall in JavaScript's async module

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import waterfall from 'async/waterfall';
var radius = 25;
waterfall([
  function(callback){
    // Getting value of pi
    var pi = Math.PI
    // Sending value forward
    callback(null, pi)
  },
  function(pi, callback){
    // Squaring radius
    var square = radius * radius;
    // Sending both values forward
    callback(null, pi, square)
  },
  function(pi, square, callback){
    // Calculating area
    area = pi * square;
    // Sending area to final callback
    callback(null, area);
  }
], function(err, result){
  if (err){
    // Displaying error
    console.log(err)
  }
  else {
    // Displaying result
    console.log(result)
  }
})
waterfall([
  function(callback){
    // Doing Something
    var arg1 = 22
    callback(null, arg1)
  },
  function(arg1, callback){
    try{
      // Doing something
      var arg2 = 'something' * arg1;
      // Sending undefined variable to throw error
      callback(null, arg1, arg2, arg3)
    }
    catch (err){
      // Sending error to final callback
      callback(err.message, null)
    }
  },
  function(arg1, arg2, callback){
    // Message to be displayed if last function entered
    console.log("in last function")
    callback(null, arg2);
  }
], function(err, result){
  if (err){
    // Error Displayed
    console.log(err)
  }
  else {
    // Result displayed
    console.log(result)
  }
})

This example shows how waterfall is designed to act in the case of a successful execution or error. The main waterfall function takes an array of functions, to be executed in sequence, and an optional final callback function as arguments.

The first waterfall successfully calculates the area of a circle. It has to be noted that in the case of successful execution, the first argument to the callback has to be null. Each function in the waterfall has, in its arguments, the parameters forwarded by the previous function followed by a callback function. This callback is automatically assigned and defined by the library. The final callback function has an error parameter as its first argument and the result as its next argument.

The second waterfall demonstrates how errors are handled. In the waterfall in the second function, the try catch blocks detect an error when an undeclared argument is attempted to be passed to the next function. In the catch block, the callback is called with a non-null value in the first parameter. This tells the module that an error has occurred which, in turn, stops further execution of the waterfall. The final callback is then called to handle the error.

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How to use Waterfall in JavaScript's async module

Waterfall

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