Promises and async/await are important tools for managing requests in Node.js. They help make your code cleaner and easier to read.

Promises

A promise is like a promise we make in real life. It shows that something will happen in the future. When it comes to programming, it means an operation will either finish successfully or fail.

Here’s a simple example:

const fetchData = () => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        // Simulate a request
        setTimeout(() => {
            resolve("Data received!");
        }, 1000);
    });
};

In this example, the promise waits for one second and then gives us back a message: "Data received!"

Async/Await

Async/await helps us write cleaner code. With this method, our asynchronous code can look like normal, straight-line code.

Here’s how it works:

const fetchData = async () => {
    const data = await fetchData();
    console.log(data);
};

In this piece of code, we use async to say this function will do something that takes time. Then we use await to tell the program to wait for the data.

Using promises and async/await helps us avoid messy code known as "callback hell." It also makes it easier to handle errors using try/catch blocks.

By using these tools, we can create cleaner and more manageable code when handling requests and responses in Node.js applications.