Observable Finally on Subscribe

The current "pipable" variant of this operator is called finalize() (since RxJS 6). The older and now deprecated "patch" operator was called finally() (until RxJS 5.5).

I think finalize() operator is actually correct. You say:

do that logic only when I subscribe, and after the stream has ended

which is not a problem I think. You can have a single source and use finalize() before subscribing to it if you want. This way you're not required to always use finalize():

let source = new Observable(observer => {
  observer.next(1);
  observer.error('error message');
  observer.next(3);
  observer.complete();
}).pipe(
  publish(),
);

source.pipe(
  finalize(() => console.log('Finally callback')),
).subscribe(
  value => console.log('#1 Next:', value),
  error => console.log('#1 Error:', error),
  () => console.log('#1 Complete')
);

source.subscribe(
  value => console.log('#2 Next:', value),
  error => console.log('#2 Error:', error),
  () => console.log('#2 Complete')
);

source.connect();

This prints to console:

#1 Next: 1
#2 Next: 1
#1 Error: error message
Finally callback
#2 Error: error message

Jan 2019: Updated for RxJS 6

I'm now using RxJS 5.5.7 in an Angular application and using finalize operator has a weird behavior for my use case since is fired before success or error callbacks.

Simple example:

// Simulate an AJAX callback...
of(null)
  .pipe(
    delay(2000),
    finalize(() => {
      // Do some work after complete...
      console.log('Finalize method executed before "Data available" (or error thrown)');
    })
  )
  .subscribe(
      response => {
        console.log('Data available.');
      },
      err => {
        console.error(err);
      }
  );

I have had to use the add medhod in the subscription to accomplish what I want. Basically a finally callback after the success or error callbacks are done. Like a try..catch..finally block or Promise.finally method.

Simple example:

// Simulate an AJAX callback...
of(null)
  .pipe(
    delay(2000)
  )
  .subscribe(
      response => {
        console.log('Data available.');
      },
      err => {
        console.error(err);
      }
  )
  .add(() => {
    // Do some work after complete...
    console.log('At this point the success or error callbacks has been completed.');
  });

The only thing which worked for me is this

fetchData()
  .subscribe(
    (data) => {
       //Called when success
     },
    (error) => {
       //Called when error
    }
  ).add(() => {
       //Called when operation is complete (both success and error)
  });