What is the purpose of the async and await constructs in programming?

The async and await constructs are used for working with asynchronous code, allowing it to be written in a style similar to synchronous code, which simplifies reading and maintenance.

• async before a function indicates that the function returns a promise and can contain asynchronous operations.
• await is used inside an async function to wait for the result of a promise, pausing the execution until the promise is resolved, but not blocking the thread.

Example in JavaScript (Node.js):

async function fetchData() {
  try {
    const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data');
    const data = await response.json();
    console.log(data);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error);
  }
}

fetchData();

This approach simplifies handling asynchronous operations compared to using .then() chains.