## Asynchronous programming

The driver exposes an asynchronous API that allows you to write programs
in a fully-non blocking manner. Asynchronous methods return instances of
Guava's [ListenableFuture], that can be conveniently chained and
composed.

Here is a short example that opens a session and runs a query
asynchronously:

```java
import com.google.common.util.concurrent.*;

ListenableFuture<Session> session = cluster.connectAsync();

// Use transform with an AsyncFunction to chain an async operation after another:
ListenableFuture<ResultSet> resultSet = Futures.transform(session,
    new AsyncFunction<Session, ResultSet>() {
        public ListenableFuture<ResultSet> apply(Session session) throws Exception {
            return session.executeAsync("select release_version from system.local");
        }
    });

// Use transform with a simple Function to apply a synchronous computation on the result:
ListenableFuture<String> version = Futures.transform(resultSet,
    new Function<ResultSet, String>() {
        public String apply(ResultSet rs) {
            return rs.one().getString("release_version");
        }
    });

// Use a callback to perform an action once the future is complete:
Futures.addCallback(version, new FutureCallback<String>() {
    public void onSuccess(String version) {
        System.out.printf("Cassandra version: %s%n", version);
    }

    public void onFailure(Throwable t) {
        System.out.printf("Failed to retrieve the version: %s%n",
            t.getMessage());
    }
});
```

### Async paging

If you consume a `ResultSet` in a callback, be aware that iterating the
rows will trigger synchronous queries as you page through the results.
To avoid this, use [getAvailableWithoutFetching] to limit the iteration
to the current page, and [fetchMoreResults] to get a future to the next
page (see also the section on [paging](../paging/)).
Here is a full example:

[getAvailableWithoutFetching]: http://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.5/com/datastax/driver/core/ResultSet.html#getAvailableWithoutFetching--
[fetchMoreResults]: http://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.5/com/datastax/driver/core/ResultSet.html#fetchMoreResults--

```java
Statement statement = new SimpleStatement("select * from foo").setFetchSize(20);
ListenableFuture<ResultSet> future = Futures.transform(
    session.executeAsync(statement),
    iterate(1));

private static AsyncFunction<ResultSet, ResultSet> iterate(final int page) {
    return new AsyncFunction<ResultSet, ResultSet>() {
        @Override
        public ListenableFuture<ResultSet> apply(ResultSet rs) throws Exception {

            // How far we can go without triggering the blocking fetch:
            int remainingInPage = rs.getAvailableWithoutFetching();

            System.out.printf("Starting page %d (%d rows)%n", page, remainingInPage);

            for (Row row : rs) {
                System.out.printf("[page %d - %d] row = %s%n", page, remainingInPage, row);
                if (--remainingInPage == 0)
                    break;
            }
            System.out.printf("Done page %d%n", page);

            boolean wasLastPage = rs.getExecutionInfo().getPagingState() == null;
            if (wasLastPage) {
                System.out.println("Done iterating");
                return Futures.immediateFuture(rs);
            } else {
                ListenableFuture<ResultSet> future = rs.fetchMoreResults();
                return Futures.transform(future, iterate(page + 1));
            }
        }
    };
}
```

### Good practices

If your callback is slow, consider providing a separate executor.
Otherwise the callback might run on one of the driver's I/O threads,
blocking I/O operations for other requests while it is running:

```java
ListenableFuture<String> result = Futures.transform(resultSet,
    new Function<ResultSet, String>() {
        public String apply(ResultSet rs) {
            return someVeryLongComputation(rs);
        }
    }, myCustomExecutor);
```

Avoid blocking operations in callbacks, especially if you don't provide
a separate executor. This could easily lead to deadlock if the thread
that's supposed to complete the blocking call is also the thread that's
waiting on it:

```java
ListenableFuture<ResultSet> resultSet = Futures.transform(session,
    new Function<Session, ResultSet>() {
        public ResultSet apply(Session session) {
            // Synchronous operation in a callback.
            // DON'T DO THIS! It might deadlock.
            return session.execute("select release_version from system.local");
        }
    });
```

### Known limitations

There are still a few places where the driver will block internally
(mainly for historical reasons):

* [Cluster#init][init] performs blocking I/O operations. To avoid
  issues, you should create your `Cluster` instances while bootstrapping
  your application, and call `init` immediately. If you need to create new
  instances at runtime, make sure this does not happen on an I/O thread.
* trying to read fields from a [query trace] will block if the trace
  hasn't been fetched already.

[ListenableFuture]: https://github.com/google/guava/wiki/ListenableFutureExplained
[init]: http://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.5/com/datastax/driver/core/Cluster.html#init--
[query trace]: http://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.5/com/datastax/driver/core/QueryTrace.html
