Correct way to handle redirect after async call

Question

I need, if some condition meets, make ajax call to server to update data. My function looks like following:

function doSomething() {
    if (something) {
        callSomethingAsync()
    }

    window.location = "/redirecturl"
}

My question is, is it always guaranteed that callSomethingAsync will be finished before redirect?

Answer 1

Your code is being executed line by line. If it only consisted of synchronous operations, it would be guaranteed that the redirect happens after any code before is done processing.

However, as callSomethingAsync is an async call, you cannot expect it to be always finished before the window.location fires.

If you'd want to make sure of it, you'd include the redirect line as the last step of the callSomethingAsync function, or you'd extend the function to take a callback.