catch async errors

Okay, read the code below, can you notice the issue with function run()?

// This function has an issue.
async function run() {
  try {
    task();
  } catch (e) {
    console.warn('Something went wrong. Please retry');
  }
}

// Just an example async function that can fail.
async function task() {
  throw new Error('test');
}

This hit me a few days ago on a project - the issue is this code will never reach the catch part! It will throw an Uncaught (in promise) Error ! You will never see the useful console message (or, in real life, any UI feedback) you want to show when the task fails.

I always simply thought async with try...catch is the same as .catch() chain. But there is a critical detail - You must await any async code that can fail.

It’s not surprising once you know it, but still an easy detail to miss.

// Correct version
async function run() {
  try {
    await task();  // Critical to have `await` here.
  } catch (e) {
    console.warn('Something went wrong. Please retry');
  }
}

// Or, the old way
task().catch((e) => {
  console.warn('Something went wrong. Please retry');
})