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.

An async function* declaration creates an AsyncGeneratorFunction object. Each time when an async generator function is called, it returns a new AsyncGenerator object, which conforms to the async iterator protocol. Every call to next() returns a Promise that resolves to the iterator result object.

An async generator function combines the features of async functions and generator functions. You can use both the await and yield keywords within the function body. This empowers you to handle asynchronous tasks ergonomically with await, while leveraging the lazy nature of generator functions.

When a promise is yielded from an async generator, the iterator result promise's eventual state will match that of the yielded promise. For example:

async function* foo() {
  yield Promise.reject(1);
}

foo()
  .next()
  .catch((e) => console.error(e));

1 will be logged, because if the yielded promise rejects, the iterator result will reject as well. The value property of an async generator's resolved result will not be another promise.

async 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.

Async generator functions always produce promises of results — even when each yield step is synchronous.

async function* myGenerator(step) {
  await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 10));
  yield 0;
  yield step;
  yield step * 2;
}

const gen = myGenerator(2);
gen
  .next()
  .then((res) => {
    console.log(res); // { value: 0, done: false }
    return gen.next();
  })
  .then((res) => {
    console.log(res); // { value: 2, done: false }
    return gen.next();
  })
  .then((res) => {
    console.log(res); // { value: 4, done: false }
    return gen.next();
  })
  .then((res) => {
    console.log(res); // { value: undefined, done: true }
    return gen.next();
  });

In this example, we read a series of files and only access its content when requested, using Node's fs/promises module.

async function* readFiles(directory) {
  const files = await fs.readdir(directory);
  for (const file of files) {
    const stats = await fs.stat(file);
    if (stats.isFile()) {
      yield {
        name: file,
        content: await fs.readFile(file, "utf8"),
      };
    }
  }
}

const files = readFiles(".");
console.log((await files.next()).value);
// Possible output: { name: 'file1.txt', content: '...' }
console.log((await files.next()).value);
// Possible output: { name: 'file2.txt', content: '...' }

• Functions guide
• Iterators and generators guide
• Functions
• AsyncGeneratorFunction
• async function* expression
• function
• function*
• async function
• Iteration protocols
• yield
• yield*
• AsyncGenerator