function*

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2016.

The function* declaration creates a binding of a new generator function to a given name. A generator function can be exited and later re-entered, with its context (variable bindings) saved across re-entrances.

You can also define generator functions using the function* expression.

Try it

Syntax

function* name(param0) {
  statements
}
function* name(param0, param1) {
  statements
}
function* name(param0, param1, /* …, */ paramN) {
  statements
}

Note: Generator functions do not have arrow function counterparts.

Note: function and * are separate tokens, so they can be separated by whitespace or line terminators.

Parameters

name: The function name.
param Optional: The name of a formal parameter for the function. For the parameters' syntax, see the Functions reference.
statements Optional: The statements comprising the body of the function.

Description

A function* declaration creates a GeneratorFunction object. Each time a generator function is called, it returns a new Generator object, which conforms to the iterator protocol. When the iterator's next() method is called, the generator function's body is executed until the first yield expression, which specifies the value to be returned from the iterator or, with yield*, delegates to another generator function. The next() method returns an object with a value property containing the yielded value and a done property which indicates whether the generator has yielded its last value, as a boolean. Calling the next() method with an argument will resume the generator function execution, replacing the yield expression where an execution was paused with the argument from next().

Generators in JavaScript — especially when combined with Promises — are a very powerful tool for asynchronous programming as they mitigate — if not entirely eliminate -- the problems with callbacks, such as Callback Hell and Inversion of Control. However, an even simpler solution to these problems can be achieved with async functions.

A return statement in a generator, when executed, will make the generator finish (i.e. the done property of the object returned by it will be set to true). If a value is returned, it will be set as the value property of the object returned by the generator. Much like a return statement, an error thrown inside the generator will make the generator finished — unless caught within the generator's body. When a generator is finished, subsequent next() calls will not execute any of that generator's code, they will just return an object of this form: {value: undefined, done: true}.

function* declarations behave similar to function declarations — they are hoisted to the top of their scope and can be called anywhere in their scope, and they can be redeclared only in certain contexts.

Examples

Basic example

function* idMaker() {
  let index = 0;
  while (true) {
    yield index++;
  }
}

const gen = idMaker();

console.log(gen.next().value); // 0
console.log(gen.next().value); // 1
console.log(gen.next().value); // 2
console.log(gen.next().value); // 3
// …

Example with yield*

function* anotherGenerator(i) {
  yield i + 1;
  yield i + 2;
  yield i + 3;
}

function* generator(i) {
  yield i;
  yield* anotherGenerator(i);
  yield i + 10;
}

const gen = generator(10);

console.log(gen.next().value); // 10
console.log(gen.next().value); // 11
console.log(gen.next().value); // 12
console.log(gen.next().value); // 13
console.log(gen.next().value); // 20

Passing arguments into Generators

function* logGenerator() {
  console.log(0);
  console.log(1, yield);
  console.log(2, yield);
  console.log(3, yield);
}

const gen = logGenerator();

// the first call of next executes from the start of the function
// until the first yield statement
gen.next(); // 0
gen.next("pretzel"); // 1 pretzel
gen.next("california"); // 2 california
gen.next("mayonnaise"); // 3 mayonnaise

Return statement in a generator

function* yieldAndReturn() {
  yield "Y";
  return "R";
  yield "unreachable";
}

const gen = yieldAndReturn();
console.log(gen.next()); // { value: "Y", done: false }
console.log(gen.next()); // { value: "R", done: true }
console.log(gen.next()); // { value: undefined, done: true }

Generator as an object property

const someObj = {
  *generator() {
    yield "a";
    yield "b";
  },
};

const gen = someObj.generator();

console.log(gen.next()); // { value: 'a', done: false }
console.log(gen.next()); // { value: 'b', done: false }
console.log(gen.next()); // { value: undefined, done: true }

Generator as an object method

class Foo {
  *generator() {
    yield 1;
    yield 2;
    yield 3;
  }
}

const f = new Foo();
const gen = f.generator();

console.log(gen.next()); // { value: 1, done: false }
console.log(gen.next()); // { value: 2, done: false }
console.log(gen.next()); // { value: 3, done: false }
console.log(gen.next()); // { value: undefined, done: true }

Generator as a computed property

class Foo {
  *[Symbol.iterator]() {
    yield 1;
    yield 2;
  }
}

const SomeObj = {
  *[Symbol.iterator]() {
    yield "a";
    yield "b";
  },
};

console.log(Array.from(new Foo())); // [ 1, 2 ]
console.log(Array.from(SomeObj)); // [ 'a', 'b' ]

Generators are not constructable

function* f() {}
const obj = new f(); // throws "TypeError: f is not a constructor

Generator defined in an expression

const foo = function* () {
  yield 10;
  yield 20;
};

const bar = foo();
console.log(bar.next()); // {value: 10, done: false}

Generator example

function* powers(n) {
  //endless loop to generate
  for (let current = n; ; current *= n) {
    yield current;
  }
}

for (const power of powers(2)) {
  // controlling generator
  if (power > 32) {
    break;
  }
  console.log(power);
  // 2
  // 4
  // 8
  // 16
  // 32
}

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-generator-function-definitions

Browser compatibility

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