How to Create an Async Function via “new Function”

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One thing I love about JavaScript is that there are many ways to accomplish the same task, one such example being creating functions. There are several patterns for functions; one of the last you see used is the new Function method:

/* new Function(arg1, arg2 (...), body) */
const myFunction = new Function('users', 'salary', 'return users * salary');

What if you want to use this new Function method to create an async function? You need to be a bit clever, and thanks to MDN, we have an answer:

// Shim for allowing async function creation via new Function
const AsyncFunction = Object.getPrototypeOf(async function(){}).constructor;

// Usage
const fetchPage = new AsyncFunction("url", "return await fetch(url);");
fetchPage("/").then(response => { ... });

The usage of Object.getPrototypeOf(async function(){}).constructor is super clever, as a native AsyncFunction doesn't exist. I don't believe that I've ever used the new Function pattern but that doesn't mean you don't! And now you can make them asynchronous!

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Discussion

  1. Gustavo

    fetch() is already an async function, can you change your example?

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!