NodeJS supports async/await out of the box since version 7.6. I believe it has been the single greatest addition to JS since 2017. If you haven’t tried it yet, here are a bunch of reasons with examples why you should adopt it immediately and never look back.

\[UPDATE\]: This article has been edited to be more relevant in 2019

### Async/Await 101

For those who have never heard of this topic before, here’s a quick intro

*   Async/await is a new way to write asynchronous code. Previous alternatives for asynchronous code are callbacks and promises.
*   Async/await is actually just syntax sugar built on top of promises. It cannot be used with plain callbacks or node callbacks.
*   Async/await is, like promises, non blocking.
*   Async/await makes asynchronous code look and behave a little more like synchronous code. This is where all its power lies.

### Syntax

Assuming a function `getJSON` that returns a promise, and that promise resolves with some JSON object. We just want to call it and log that JSON, then return `"done"`.

This is how you would implement it using promises

2\. If you set a breakpoint inside a `.then` block and use debug shortcuts like step-over, the debugger will not move to the the following `.then` because it only “steps” through synchronous code.

With async/await you don’t need arrow functions as much, and you can step through await calls exactly as if they were normal synchronous calls.

![](https://hackernoon.com/hn-images/1*GWYd4eLrs0U96MkNNVB56A.png)

### In Conclusion

Async/await is one of the most revolutionary features that have been added to [JavaScript](https://hackernoon.com/tagged/JavaScript) in the past few years. It makes you realize what a syntactical mess promises are, and provides an intuitive replacement.

### Concerns

Some valid skepticism you might have about using this feature is that it makes asynchronous code less obvious: Our eyes learned to spot asynchronous code whenever we see a callback or a `.then`, it will take a few weeks for your eyes to adjust to the new signs, but C# had this feature for years and people who are familiar with it know it’s worth this minor, temporary inconvenience.

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