Why we should use RxJs of() function?

Question

in service section of angular.io tutorial for angular2 I hit a method named of.for example :

getHeroes(): Observable<Hero[]> {
  return of(HEROES);
}

or in below sample:

getHero(id: number): Observable<Hero> {
  // Todo: send the message _after_ fetching the hero
  this.messageService.add(`HeroService: fetched hero id=${id}`);
  return of(HEROES.find(hero => hero.id === id));
}

in angular.io Just explained

used RxJS of() to return an Observable of mock heroes (Observable).

and It was not explained why we should use of function and exactly what does it do and what are its benefits ?

Answer 1

The reason why they're using of() is because it's very easy to use it instead of a real HTTP call.

In a real application you would implement getHeroes() like this for example:

getHeroes(): Observable<Hero[]> {
  return this.http.get(`/heroes`);
}

But since you just want to use a mocked response without creating any real backend you can use of() to return a fake response:

const HEROES = [{...}, {...}];

getHeroes(): Observable<Hero[]> {
  return of(HEROES);
}

The rest of your application is going to work the same because of() is an Observable and you can later subscribe or chain operators to it just like you were using this.http.get(...).

The only thing that of() does is that it emits its parameters as single emissions immediately on subscription and then sends the complete notification.