Is it anti-pattern to run asynchronous callbacks in catch blocks?

December 23, 2021

Is it an anti-pattern to run asynchronous callbacks in error catching like this?

await something()
   .catch(async (err) => {
      console.error(err);
      await otherStuff();
   });

>Solution :

If your intent is to have that whole expression there never reject – that is, to avoid the need for

try {
  await something()
   .catch(async (err) => {
      // ...
} catch(e) {
  // handle
}

Then what you’re doing right now isn’t safe if there’s any chance of the otherStuff call rejecting. If otherStuff might reject, then you should make sure to catch possible errors it throws, eg

await something()
   .catch(async (err) => {
      console.error(err);
      await otherStuff();
   })
   .catch(handleOtherStuffErrors)

Though having an async function with only a single await isn’t that useful – consider instead just returning the Promise:

await something()
   .catch((err) => {
      console.error(err);
      return otherStuff();
   })
   .catch(handleOtherStuffErrors)

Chaining catches like that is pretty odd, but it’s not impossible that that’s what one’s logic requires, so don’t make a blanket statement about whether it’s inherently bad.