Express middleware
Middleware functions are functions that have access to the request object (req ), the response object (res ), and the next function in the Express application’s request-response cycle. The next function is a function in the Express router which, when invoked, executes the middleware succeeding the current middleware in the middleware chain. If the current middleware function does not end the request-response cycle, it must call next() to pass control to the next middleware function. Otherwise, the request will be left hanging.
var express = require(‘express’);
var app = express();
// define middleware function
var loggerMiddleware = function(req, res, next) {
console.log(`{req.method} ${req.url} — ${new Date()}`);
next();
}
// bind middleware function to the instance of the app object
app.use(loggerMiddleware);
// every time the app receives a request, it prints some request details to the // terminal
app.get(‘/‘, function(req, res) {
res.send(‘Hello, world!’);
});
Memoization
In computing, memoization is an optimization technique used primarily to speed up computer programs by storing the results of expensive function calls and returning the cached result when the same inputs occur again. Dynamic programming and memoization work together.
// direct recursive solution
function fib(n) {
if (n < 1) {
return n;
} else {
return fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2);
}
}
|
// solution using memoization
var memo = {};
function fib(n) {
if (n <= 1) {
return n;
}
if (n in memo) {
return memo[n];
}
memo[n] = fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2);
return memo[n];
}
}
|
Most of the time, referring to the previous calculation output is cheaper than recomputing in terms of CPU cycles and reduces the time complexity of the solution.
There is also a handy function available in the Underscore.js and Lodash library that relies on this technique.
var fibonacci = _.memoize(function(n) {
return n < 2 ? n: fibonacci(n - 1) + fibonacci(n - 2);
});
“Express Middleware & Memoization” Tech Bite was brought to you by Senadin Terović, Junior Software Engineer at Atlantbh.
Tech Bites are tips, tricks, snippets or explanations about various programming technologies and paradigms, which can help engineers with their everyday job.
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