RxJs Subject vs BehaviorSubject vs ReplaySubject vs AsyncSubject

Subject

  • Sends only upcoming values;
  • A Subject doesn't hold a value;

An RxJS Subject is an Observable that allows values to be multicasted to many Observers.


var subject = new Rx.Subject();



subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerA: ' + v)

});

subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerB: ' + v)

});



subject.next(1);

subject.next(2);



/*

Console output:

observerA: 1

observerB: 1

observerA: 2

observerB: 2

*/

Every Subject is an Observer, so you may provide a Subject as the argument to the subscribe of any Observable, like the example below shows:


var subject = new Rx.Subject();



subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerA: ' + v)

});

subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerB: ' + v)

});



var observable = Rx.Observable.from([1, 2, 3]);



observable.subscribe(subject); // You can subscribe providing a Subject



/*

Console output:

observerA: 1

observerB: 1

observerA: 2

observerB: 2

observerA: 3

observerB: 3

*/

BehaviorSubject

  • Sends one previous value and upcoming values;
  • A BehaviorSubject holds one value. When it is subscribed it emits the value immediately;
  • BehaviorSubject can be created with initial value: new Rx.BehaviorSubject(1)
  • You can get current value synchronously by subject.value;
  • BehaviorSubject is the best for 90% of the cases to store current value comparing to other Subject types;

var subject = new Rx.BehaviorSubject(0); // 0 is the initial value



subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerA: ' + v)

});



subject.next(1);

subject.next(2);



subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerB: ' + v)

});



subject.next(3);

console.log('Value async:', subject.value); // Access subject value synchronously

/*

Console output:

observerA: 0

observerA: 1

observerA: 2

observerB: 2

observerA: 3

observerB: 3

Value async: 3

*/

ReplaySubject

  • Sends all previous values and upcoming values

var subject = new Rx.ReplaySubject(3); // buffer 3 values for new subscribers



subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerA: ' + v)

});



subject.next(1);

subject.next(2);

subject.next(3);

subject.next(4);



subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerB: ' + v)

});



subject.next(5);



/*

Console output:

observerA: 1

observerA: 2

observerA: 3

observerA: 4

observerB: 2

observerB: 3

observerB: 4

observerA: 5

observerB: 5

*/

AsyncSubject

  • Sends one latest value when the stream will close

var subject = new Rx.AsyncSubject();



subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerA: ' + v)

});



subject.next(1);

subject.next(2);

subject.next(3);

subject.next(4);



subject.subscribe({

  next: (v) => console.log('observerB: ' + v)

});



subject.next(5);

subject.complete();



/*

Console output:

observerA: 5

observerB: 5

*/

Sources:

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