BehaviorSubject is a type of subject, a subject is a special type of observable so you can subscribe to messages like any other observable. The unique features of BehaviorSubject are:
- It needs an initial value as it must always return a value on subscription even if it hasn’t received a
next()
- Upon subscription it returns the last value of the subject. A regular observable only triggers when it receives an
onnext
- at any point you can retrieve the last value of the subject in a non-observable code using the
getValue()
method.
Unique features of a subject compared to an observable are:
- It is an observer in addition to being an observable so you can also send values to a subject in addition to subscribing to it.
In addition you can get an observable from behavior subject using the asobservable()
method on BehaviorSubject.
In Angular services, I would use BehaviorSubject for a data service as a angular service often initializes before component and behavior subject ensures that the component consuming the service receives the last updated data even if there are no new updates since the component’s subscription to this data.