Observable Finally on Subscribe

Question

The current "pipable" variant of this operator is called finalize() (since RxJS 6). The older and now deprecated "patch" operator was called finally() (until RxJS 5.5).

I think finalize() operator is actually correct. You say:

do that logic only when I subscribe, and after the stream has ended

which is not a problem I think. You can have a single source and use finalize() before subscribing to it if you want. This way you're not required to always use finalize():

let source = new Observable(observer => {
  observer.next(1);
  observer.error('error message');
  observer.next(3);
  observer.complete();
}).pipe(
  publish(),
);

source.pipe(
  finalize(() => console.log('Finally callback')),
).subscribe(
  value => console.log('#1 Next:', value),
  error => console.log('#1 Error:', error),
  () => console.log('#1 Complete')
);

source.subscribe(
  value => console.log('#2 Next:', value),
  error => console.log('#2 Error:', error),
  () => console.log('#2 Complete')
);

source.connect();

This prints to console:

#1 Next: 1
#2 Next: 1
#1 Error: error message
Finally callback
#2 Error: error message

Jan 2019: Updated for RxJS 6

The only thing which worked for me is this

fetchData()
  .subscribe(
    (data) => {
       //Called when success
     },
    (error) => {
       //Called when error
    }
  ).add(() => {
       //Called when operation is complete (both success and error)
  });

I'm now using RxJS 5.5.7 in an Angular application and using finalize operator has a weird behavior for my use case since is fired before success or error callbacks.

Simple example:

// Simulate an AJAX callback...
of(null)
  .pipe(
    delay(2000),
    finalize(() => {
      // Do some work after complete...
      console.log('Finalize method executed before "Data available" (or error thrown)');
    })
  )
  .subscribe(
      response => {
        console.log('Data available.');
      },
      err => {
        console.error(err);
      }
  );

I have had to use the add medhod in the subscription to accomplish what I want. Basically a finally callback after the success or error callbacks are done. Like a try..catch..finally block or Promise.finally method.

Simple example:

// Simulate an AJAX callback...
of(null)
  .pipe(
    delay(2000)
  )
  .subscribe(
      response => {
        console.log('Data available.');
      },
      err => {
        console.error(err);
      }
  )
  .add(() => {
    // Do some work after complete...
    console.log('At this point the success or error callbacks has been completed.');
  });