What is the difference between setTimeout, setImmediate and process.nextTick?

setTimeout

setTimeout is a method of the window object in the browser, and a method of the global object in Node.js, that allows you to execute a function after a specified amount of time. It takes two arguments: a callback function and a delay in milliseconds.

For example, the following code will execute the myFunction callback after 1000 milliseconds (1 second):

setTimeout(myFunction, 1000);

setImmediate

setImmediate is a method of the window object in the browser, and a method of the process object in Node.js, that allows you to execute a function as soon as possible after the current execution context. It takes one argument: a callback function.

For example, the following code will execute the myFunction callback as soon as possible:

setImmediate(myFunction);

process.nextTick

process.nextTick is a method of the process object in Node.js, that allows you to execute a function as soon as possible after the current execution context. It takes one argument: a callback function.

For example, the following code will execute the myFunction callback as soon as possible:

process.nextTick(myFunction);

The main difference between setTimeout, setImmediate and process.nextTick is that setTimeout and setImmediate are asynchronous, while process.nextTick is synchronous. This means that setTimeout and setImmediate will be executed after the current execution context is finished, while process.nextTick will be executed immediately.