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5 Synchronous Vs Asynchronous

Synchronous execution refers to line-by-line execution where the program execution waits for each function call to complete before moving to the next line. Asynchronous execution does not block and allows the program to continue execution by invoking functions without waiting for them to finish and returning placeholders like futures that can be queried later for the results. Asynchronous programming is well-suited for applications performing disk or network I/O where they would otherwise spend most of their time waiting idly.

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54 views2 pages

5 Synchronous Vs Asynchronous

Synchronous execution refers to line-by-line execution where the program execution waits for each function call to complete before moving to the next line. Asynchronous execution does not block and allows the program to continue execution by invoking functions without waiting for them to finish and returning placeholders like futures that can be queried later for the results. Asynchronous programming is well-suited for applications performing disk or network I/O where they would otherwise spend most of their time waiting idly.

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jitendra99943
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Synchronous vs Asynchronous

This lesson discusses the differences between asynchronous and synchronous programming which are often
talked about in the context of concurrency.

Synchronous

Synchronous execution refers to line-by-line execution of code. If a


function is invoked, the program execution waits until the function call is
completed. Synchronous execution blocks at each method call before
proceeding to the next line of code. A program executes in the same
sequence as the code in the source code file. Synchronous execution is
synonymous to serial execution.

Asynchronous

Asynchronous (or async) execution refers to execution that doesn't block


when invoking subroutines. Or if you prefer the more fancy Wikipedia
definition: Asynchronous programming is a means of parallel
programming in which a unit of work runs separately from the main
application thread and notifies the calling thread of its completion, failure
or progress. An asynchronous program doesn’t wait for a task to complete
and can move on to the next task.

In contrast to synchronous execution, asynchronous execution doesn't


necessarily execute code line by line, that is instructions may not run in
the sequence they appear in the code. Async execution can invoke a
method and move onto the next line of code without waiting for the
invoked function to complete or receive its result. Usually, such methods
return an entity sometimes called a future or promise that is a
representation of an in-progress computation. The program can query for
the status of the computation via the returned future or promise and
retrieve the result once completed. Another pattern is to pass a callback
function to the asynchronous function call which is invoked with the
results when the asynchronous function is done processing.
Asynchronous programming is an excellent choice for applications that
do extensive network or disk I/O and spend most of their time waiting. As
an example, Javascript enables concurrency using AJAX library's
asynchronous method calls. In non-threaded environments,
asynchronous programming provides an alternative to threads in order
to achieve concurrency and fall under the cooperative multitasking
model.

Asynchronous programming support in Java has become a lot more


robust starting with Java 8, however, the topic is out of scope for this
course so we only mention it in passing.

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