How can I rate limit how fast a javascript function allows itself to be called?

Question

I have a JavaScript function which actually ends up making a server-side call. I want to limit the rate at which this function can be called.

What is an easy way I can limit how fast my javascript function will get called by say 200-500 milliseconds or so? Should I use a javascript timer control?

Answer 1

Libraries like bottleneck and node-rate-limiter pretty much cover all use cases.

Answer 2

If your problem involves too much work being created, use a queue:

const work_queue = [];  function queue(message) {   work_queue.push(message)   }   function run() {   const work = work_queue.shift();   if (work !== undefined) {     scan_one(work);   } }  setInterval(run, 15); 

If you problem involves a function being called too often:

let last = +new Date();  function run() {   const now = +new Date();   if (now - last > 5000) { // 5 seconds     last = now;     run_once();   } }