Question

When using async library for flow control, specifically async.forEach how do you properly perform a callback in case when you need to skip a specific item.

Example:

async.forEach(bigCollection, function(item, callback) {

    if(skipThis) {
        return callback();
        // OR BELLOW IS BETTER??
        //return process.nextTick(callback);
    }

    db.query(query, callback);

}, callback);

In case that I don’t use process.nextTick(callback) do I risk running into stack overflow if the bigCollection is too big? And in case that I do use process.nextTick(callback) do I anyhow sabotage my code?

I have got into habit of doing it the process.nextTick(callback) way, however I am not so sure it’s a good practice to do so.

Answer 1

I would say that without nextTick it’s ok.

async.forEach(bigCollection, function(item, callback) {
    if(skipThis) {
        return callback();
    }
    db.query(query, callback);
}, callback);

If bigCollection is too big, then you will get the overflow before you come into the loop.