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# thunky
Delay the evaluation of a paramless async function and cache the result (see [thunk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunk_%28functional_programming%29)).
```npm install thunky```
[](http://travis-ci.org/mafintosh/thunky)
## Example
Let's make a simple function that returns a random number 1 second after it is called for the first time
``` jsvar thunky = require('thunky')
var test = thunky(function (callback) { // the inner function should only accept a callback console.log('waiting 1s and returning random number') setTimeout(function () { callback(Math.random()) }, 1000)})
test(function (num) { // inner function is called the first time we call test console.log(num) // prints random number})
test(function (num) { // subsequent calls waits for the first call to finish and return the same value console.log(num) // prints the same random number as above})```
## Lazy evaluation
Thunky makes it easy to implement a lazy evaluation pattern.
``` jsvar getDb = thunky(function (callback) { db.open(myConnectionString, callback)})
var queryDb = function (query, callback) { getDb(function (err, db) { if (err) return callback(err) db.query(query, callback) })}
queryDb('some query', function (err, result) { ... } )
queryDb('some other query', function (err, result) { ... } )```
The first time `getDb` is called it will try do open a connection to the database.Any subsequent calls will just wait for the first call to complete and then call your callback.
A nice property of this pattern is that it *easily* allows us to pass any error caused by `getDb` to the `queryDb` callback.
## Error → No caching
If the thunk callback is called with an `Error` object as the first argument it will not cache the result
``` jsvar fails = thunky(function (callback) { console.log('returning an error') callback(new Error('bad stuff'))})
fails(function (err) { // inner function is called console.log(err)});
fails(function (err) { // inner function is called again as it returned an error before console.log(err)})```
## Promise version
A promise version is available as well
``` jsvar thunkyp = require('thunky/promise')
var ready = thunkyp(async function () { // ... do async stuff return 42})
// same semantics as the callback versionawait ready()```
## License
MIT
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