Today, I will use RxJS pipeable operators and create a custom and reusable operator. This is based on the demo I made in Episode 27.

Let’s print this in the console:

with those three cards:

• Part 1 - Reminder: stream, reactivity and immutability
• Part 2 - Implementation with RxJS pipeable operators
• Part 3 - Creation of a reusable and custom operator

Part 1 - Reminder: stream, reactivity and immutability

New to Reactive Programming? Start with Episode 1. Here is a summary.

A stream is a sequence of events over time (eg. a stream of click events). In this episode, I’ll use ❚ interval to create a stream that emits incremental numbers, periodically.

A listener reacts to events emitted by a stream (values, error and completion notification). This is the reactivity principle. I’ll use console.log as a listener to react to the emitted values.

Operators transform, filter and combine streams. An operator never modifies the input stream. Instead, it returns a new stream. This is the immutability principle. To create a “gaussian” stream from interval I need:

• the mapping operator ❚ map. It projects each event of the input stream with a project function.
• the filtering operator ❚ take to set a maximum amount of events to emit. Indeed, interval emits an infinite number of events, but I want to print only 25 lines on the console.

Part 2 - Implementation with RxJS pipeable operators

This example is based on RxJS v6.0 and pipeable operators. Download other versions with my explorer:

RxJS Explorer 2.0

Import the creation function ❚ interval and the pipeable operators ❚ map and ❚ take:

import { interval } from "rxjs";
import { map, take } from "rxjs/operators";

The creation function ❚ interval returns an Observable. It has a built-in pipe method to chain pipeable operators.

Emit incremental numbers and complete immediately after the 25th value:

const stream1 = interval(350).pipe(
    take(25)
);

Emit values projected with a gaussian function, every 350ms:

const stream2 = interval(350).pipe(
    take(25),
    map(gaussian)
);

Emit lines of “•” based on decimals:

const stream3 = interval(350).pipe(
    take(25),
    map(gaussian),
    map(num => "•".repeat(Math.floor(num * 65)))
);

Use the subscribe method to pass a stream listener:

stream.subscribe(console.log)

Part 3 - Creation of a reusable and custom operator

What if I want both a gaussian stream of • and a bezier stream of ~?

const gaussian_stream = interval(350).pipe(
    take(25),
    map(gaussian),
    map(num => "•".repeat(Math.floor(num * 65)))
);

const bezier_stream = interval(350).pipe(
    take(25),
    map(bezier),
    map(num => "~".repeat(Math.floor(num * 65)))
);

Clearly, this code could be refactored. For that, I need to create my own operator, ideally based both on take(25) and map(num => ...).

Previously, those two RxJS operators were chained with the pipe method built into Observable. But here, I want to chain two operators in a separate function.

To do so, RxJS provides a utility pipe function, that needs to be imported:

import { interval, pipe } from "rxjs";
import { map, take } from "rxjs/operators";

I use this pipe function to chain map and take. Et voilà! My custom draw operator:

const draw = brush =>
  pipe(
    map(num => brush.repeat(Math.floor(num * 65))),
    take(25)
  );

Finally, my home-made draw operator can be used like any other RxJS pipeable operators:

const gaussian_stream = interval(350).pipe(
  map(gaussian),
  draw("•")
);

const bezier_stream = interval(350).pipe(
  map(bezier),
  draw("~")
);

Summary

• Import pipeable operators from rxjs/operators
• Chain them with the pipe method built into Observable
• Optionally, import the pipe function to build custom and reusable operators from other pipeable operators

You can download the full source code in several versions on reactive.how/rxjs/explorer.

See also

The Illustrated Book of RxJS ($40 off on Gumroad)
Launchpad for RxJS