# Stream<T> class

A source of asynchronous data events.

A Stream provides a way to receive a sequence of events. Each event is either a data event, also called an element of the stream, or an error event, which is a notification that something has failed. When a stream has emitted all its event, a single "done" event will notify the listener that the end has been reached.

You listen on a stream to make it start generating events, and to set up listeners that receive the events. When you listen, you receive a StreamSubscription object which is the active object providing the events, and which can be used to stop listening again, or to temporarily pause events from the subscription.

There are two kinds of streams: "Single-subscription" streams and "broadcast" streams.

A single-subscription stream allows only a single listener during the whole lifetime of the stream. It doesn't start generating events until it has a listener, and it stops sending events when the listener is unsubscribed, even if the source of events could still provide more.

Listening twice on a single-subscription stream is not allowed, even after the first subscription has been canceled.

Single-subscription streams are generally used for streaming chunks of larger contiguous data like file I/O.

A broadcast stream allows any number of listeners, and it fires its events when they are ready, whether there are listeners or not.

Broadcast streams are used for independent events/observers.

If several listeners want to listen to a single subscription stream, use asBroadcastStream to create a broadcast stream on top of the non-broadcast stream.

On either kind of stream, stream transformations, such as where and skip, return the same type of stream as the one the method was called on, unless otherwise noted.

When an event is fired, the listener(s) at that time will receive the event. If a listener is added to a broadcast stream while an event is being fired, that listener will not receive the event currently being fired. If a listener is canceled, it immediately stops receiving events.

When the "done" event is fired, subscribers are unsubscribed before receiving the event. After the event has been sent, the stream has no subscribers. Adding new subscribers to a broadcast stream after this point is allowed, but they will just receive a new "done" event as soon as possible.

Stream subscriptions always respect "pause" requests. If necessary they need to buffer their input, but often, and preferably, they can simply request their input to pause too.

The default implementation of isBroadcast returns false. A broadcast stream inheriting from Stream must override isBroadcast to return `true`.

Implemented by
  - CustomStream
  - ElementStream
  - HttpClientResponse
  - HttpRequest
  - HttpServer
  - RawDatagramSocket
  - RawSecureServerSocket
  - RawServerSocket
  - RawSocket
  - ReceivePort
  - SecureServerSocket
  - ServerSocket
  - Socket
  - Stdin
  - StreamView
  - WebSocket

## Constructors

Stream()
Stream.empty()
  Creates an empty broadcast stream. [...]
  const
  factory
Stream.eventTransformed(Stream source, EventSink mapSink(EventSink<T> sink))
  Creates a stream where all events of an existing stream are piped through a sink-transformation. [...]
  factory
Stream.fromFuture(Future<T> future)
  Creates a new single-subscription stream from the future. [...]
  factory
Stream.fromFutures(Iterable<Future<T>> futures)
  Create a stream from a group of futures. [...]
  factory
Stream.fromIterable(Iterable<T> data)
  Creates a single-subscription stream that gets its data from `data`. [...]
  factory
Stream.periodic(Duration period, [ T computation(int computationCount) ])
  Creates a stream that repeatedly emits events at `period` intervals. [...]
  factory

## Properties

first → Future<T>
  The first element of the stream. [...]
  read-only
isBroadcast → bool
  Whether this stream is a broadcast stream.
  read-only
isEmpty → Future<bool>
  Whether this stream contains any elements. [...]
  read-only
last → Future<T>
  The last element of this stream. [...]
  read-only
length → Future<int>
  The number of elements in this stream. [...]
  read-only
single → Future<T>
  The single element of this stream. [...]
  read-only
hashCode → int
  The hash code for this object. [...]
  read-only, inherited
runtimeType → Type
  A representation of the runtime type of the object.
  read-only, inherited

## Methods

any(bool test(T element)) → Future<bool>
  Checks whether `test` accepts any element provided by this stream. [...]
asBroadcastStream({void onListen(StreamSubscription<T> subscription), void onCancel(StreamSubscription<T> subscription) }) → Stream<T>
  Returns a multi-subscription stream that produces the same events as this. [...]
asyncExpand<E>(Stream<E> convert(T event)) → Stream<E>
  Transforms each element into a sequence of asynchronous events. [...]
asyncMap<E>(FutureOr<E> convert(T event)) → Stream<E>
  Creates a new stream with each data event of this stream asynchronously mapped to a new event. [...]
cast<R>() → Stream<R>
  Adapt this stream to be a `Stream<R>`. [...]
contains(Object needle) → Future<bool>
  Returns whether `needle` occurs in the elements provided by this stream. [...]
distinct([bool equals(T previous, T next) ]) → Stream<T>
  Skips data events if they are equal to the previous data event. [...]
drain<E>([E futureValue ]) → Future<E>
  Discards all data on the stream, but signals when it's done or an error occurred. [...]
elementAt(int index) → Future<T>
  Returns the value of the `index`th data event of this stream. [...]
every(bool test(T element)) → Future<bool>
  Checks whether `test` accepts all elements provided by this stream. [...]
expand<S>(Iterable<S> convert(T element)) → Stream<S>
  Transforms each element of this stream into a sequence of elements. [...]
firstWhere(bool test(T element), { T orElse() }) → Future<T>
  Finds the first element of this stream matching `test`. [...]
fold<S>(S initialValue, S combine(S previous, T element)) → Future<S>
  Combines a sequence of values by repeatedly applying `combine`. [...]
forEach(void action(T element)) → Future
  Executes `action` on each element of the stream. [...]
handleError(Function onError, { bool test(dynamic error) }) → Stream<T>
  Creates a wrapper Stream that intercepts some errors from this stream. [...]
join([String separator = "" ]) → Future<String>
  Combines the string representation of elements into a single string. [...]
lastWhere(bool test(T element), { T orElse() }) → Future<T>
  Finds the last element in this stream matching `test`. [...]
listen(void onData(T event), { Function onError, void onDone(), bool cancelOnError }) → StreamSubscription<T>
  Adds a subscription to this stream. [...]
map<S>(S convert(T event)) → Stream<S>
  Transforms each element of this stream into a new stream event. [...]
pipe(StreamConsumer<T> streamConsumer) → Future
  Pipes the events of this stream into `streamConsumer`. [...]
reduce(T combine(T previous, T element)) → Future<T>
  Combines a sequence of values by repeatedly applying `combine`. [...]
singleWhere(bool test(T element), { T orElse() }) → Future<T>
  Finds the single element in this stream matching `test`. [...]
skip(int count) → Stream<T>
  Skips the first `count` data events from this stream. [...]
skipWhile(bool test(T element)) → Stream<T>
  Skip data events from this stream while they are matched by `test`. [...]
take(int count) → Stream<T>
  Provides at most the first `count` data events of this stream. [...]
takeWhile(bool test(T element)) → Stream<T>
  Forwards data events while `test` is successful. [...]
timeout(Duration timeLimit, { void onTimeout(EventSink<T> sink) }) → Stream<T>
  Creates a new stream with the same events as this stream. [...]
toList() → Future<List<T>>
  Collects all elements of this stream in a List. [...]
toSet() → Future<Set<T>>
  Collects the data of this stream in a Set. [...]
transform<S>(StreamTransformer<T, S> streamTransformer) → Stream<S>
  Applies a StreamTransformer to the current stream. [...]
where(bool test(T event)) → Stream<T>
  Creates a new stream from this stream that discards some elements. [...]
noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) → dynamic
  Invoked when a non-existent method or property is accessed. [...]
  inherited
toString() → String
  Returns a string representation of this object.
  inherited

## Operators

operator ==(dynamic other) → bool
  The equality operator. [...]
  inherited

## Static Methods

castFrom<S, T>(Stream<S> source) → Stream<T>
  Adapts `source` to be a `Stream<T>`. [...]