What is a Stream?
The stream is a collection of data that is potentially infinite. It is a sequence of data coming in overtime. It can be thought of as items on a conveyor belt being processed one at a time.
Stream = Array + Infinity
Since the data is potentially infinite, our trusty loops are not going to be effective on them. You can’t write a for loop from zero to infinity to process the whole stream.
Javascript
for (let i = 0; i < infinite; i++) { const element = stream[i]; } |
The problem is how do we know when to stop it. This is where Observables come into the picture.
RxJs – Beginner’s Guide
Have you ever wondered how you can open a 10GB file on a device with only 4GB of RAM? Or how Netflix app can play a cloud-hosted 4K movie on your phone as soon as you press play? On a device, with 4GB of RAM, a 10GB file is effectively infinite. How does your device manage to load something that is infinite?
It has to load the file into memory in small chunks, read them, and discard them before loading more data into memory. It has to stream the data and process it in small chunks.
Contact Us