Problem Statement
What is the main difference between Future and Stream in Dart?
Explanation
Future represents an asynchronous operation that will eventually complete with a single value or error, like an HTTP request returning one response. You await a Future once and get the result. Futures are perfect for one-time async operations like fetching data from an API, reading a file, or any operation that produces a single result.
Stream represents a sequence of asynchronous events delivering multiple values over time, like user clicks, real-time database updates, or WebSocket messages. You can listen to a Stream continuously receiving multiple values as they arrive. Streams are ideal for continuous data sources, real-time updates, or any scenario where you need to react to multiple events.
Choose Future for single async results like network requests or database queries that return once. Choose Stream for continuous data like listening to Firestore changes, timer ticks, sensor data, or any sequence of events over time. Understanding this distinction helps you pick the right tool for async operations in Flutter.
