As far as a I know, there is no way to get setTimeout to run synchronously.

I have this code, where foo is a decently long function (20 lines or so).

if(delay == null){
  function foo(){

  }()
}
else {
   setTimeout(function(){
     function foo(){

     }()
   }, delay);
 }

what would very convenient, would be if setTimeout would accept an delay argument of -1, and then would just run synchronously/immediately, something like this:

var delay = delay || -1;

   setTimeout(function(){
     function foo(){

     }()
   }, delay);  // if delay is -1, will run immediately.

I don't think this functionality works with setTimeout, is there another way I can prevent having to write out the foo function twice? The only good solution I have is to create a helper function, but that's not as convenient :)

As far as a I know, there is no way to get setTimeout to run synchronously.

I have this code, where foo is a decently long function (20 lines or so).

if(delay == null){
  function foo(){

  }()
}
else {
   setTimeout(function(){
     function foo(){

     }()
   }, delay);
 }

what would very convenient, would be if setTimeout would accept an delay argument of -1, and then would just run synchronously/immediately, something like this:

var delay = delay || -1;

   setTimeout(function(){
     function foo(){

     }()
   }, delay);  // if delay is -1, will run immediately.

I don't think this functionality works with setTimeout, is there another way I can prevent having to write out the foo function twice? The only good solution I have is to create a helper function, but that's not as convenient :)

• javascript
• node.js

• You could change foo to run accordingly ? Passing a variable in it ? – Harshal Carpenter Commented Mar 14, 2016 at 19:01

4 Answers 4

Try this:

function foo(){

}
if(delay == null){
  foo();
}
else {
   setTimeout(foo, delay);
 }

Is there another way I can prevent having to write out the foo function twice?

Yep.

Define foo:

function foo() {

}

And then run it immediately if delay === -1, otherwise in a setTimeout:

if (delay === -1)
    foo();
else
    setTimeout(foo, delay);

This is really old, but you can simply just use an inline condition for the time delay.

setTimeout(foo, isDelay ? delay : 0)

Mention "delay" time at least 1000 milisec.

setTimeout(foo, isDelay ? delay : 1000)