Detect Generator Functions with JavaScript

By  on  

In the current JavaScript climate of new syntaxes, features, and using loads of external libraries, it seems harder than ever to be sure what your functions are being given or even what the data represents. Of course, we've come up with Flow and TypeScript to help, but we can't count on those always being available. That's why I like doing my own detection with JavaScript, especially when it comes to function types.

To detect if a function is a generator or async generator function, you can use the following code:

// Sample generator function
function* sampleGenerator() {}
sampleGenerator.constructor.name
// "GeneratorFunction"

async function* sampleGenerator() {}
sampleGenerator.constructor.name
// "AsyncGeneratorFunction"

Coincidentally, you can also detect a regular async function with:

async function asyncThing() {}
asyncThing.constructor.name
// "AsyncFunction"

It's always important to know if the code you're using is sync, async, or a generator, but if you're using external libraries or want to write comprehensive tests, these types of detections may be necessary.

Recent Features

  • By
    Send Text Messages with PHP

    Kids these days, I tell ya.  All they care about is the technology.  The video games.  The bottled water.  Oh, and the texting, always the texting.  Back in my day, all we had was...OK, I had all of these things too.  But I still don't get...

  • By
    5 HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed

    When you say or read "HTML5", you half expect exotic dancers and unicorns to walk into the room to the tune of "I'm Sexy and I Know It."  Can you blame us though?  We watched the fundamental APIs stagnate for so long that a basic feature...

Incredible Demos

Discussion

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