另一个使用deferred来实现任何类型的计算(通常是一些性能密集型或长时间运行的任务)的缓存的例子:

var ResultsCache = function(computationFunction, cacheKeyGenerator) {
    this._cache = {};
    this._computationFunction = computationFunction;
    if (cacheKeyGenerator)
        this._cacheKeyGenerator = cacheKeyGenerator;
};

ResultsCache.prototype.compute = function() {
    // try to retrieve computation from cache
    var cacheKey = this._cacheKeyGenerator.apply(this, arguments);
    var promise = this._cache[cacheKey];

    // if not yet cached: start computation and store promise in cache 
    if (!promise) {
        var deferred = $.Deferred();
        promise = deferred.promise();
        this._cache[cacheKey] = promise;

        // perform the computation
        var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
        args.push(deferred.resolve);
        this._computationFunction.apply(null, args);
    }

    return promise;
};

// Default cache key generator (works with Booleans, Strings, Numbers and Dates)
// You will need to create your own key generator if you work with Arrays etc.
ResultsCache.prototype._cacheKeyGenerator = function(args) {
    return Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments).join("|");
};

下面是一个使用这个类来执行一些(模拟繁重的)计算的例子:

// The addingMachine will add two numbers
var addingMachine = new ResultsCache(function(a, b, resultHandler) {
    console.log("Performing computation: adding " + a + " and " + b);
    // simulate rather long calculation time by using a 1s timeout
    setTimeout(function() {
        var result = a + b;
        resultHandler(result);
    }, 1000);
});

addingMachine.compute(2, 4).then(function(result) {
    console.log("result: " + result);
});

addingMachine.compute(1, 1).then(function(result) {
    console.log("result: " + result);
});

// cached result will be used
addingMachine.compute(2, 4).then(function(result) {
    console.log("result: " + result);
});

同样的底层缓存也可以用于缓存Ajax请求:

var ajaxCache = new ResultsCache(function(id, resultHandler) {
    console.log("Performing Ajax request for id '" + id + "'");
    $.getJSON('http://jsfiddle.net/echo/jsonp/?callback=?', {value: id}, function(data) {
        resultHandler(data.value);
    });
});

ajaxCache.compute("anID").then(function(result) {
    console.log("result: " + result);
});

ajaxCache.compute("anotherID").then(function(result) {
    console.log("result: " + result);
});

// cached result will be used
ajaxCache.compute("anID").then(function(result) {
    console.log("result: " + result);
});

您可以在这个jsFiddle中使用上述代码。

1)使用它来确保回调的有序执行:

var step1 = new Deferred();
var step2 = new Deferred().done(function() { return step1 });
var step3 = new Deferred().done(function() { return step2 });

step1.done(function() { alert("Step 1") });
step2.done(function() { alert("Step 2") });
step3.done(function() { alert("All done") });
//now the 3 alerts will also be fired in order of 1,2,3
//no matter which Deferred gets resolved first.

step2.resolve();
step3.resolve();
step1.resolve();

2)用它来验证应用的状态:

var loggedIn = logUserInNow(); //deferred
var databaseReady = openDatabaseNow(); //deferred

jQuery.when(loggedIn, databaseReady).then(function() {
  //do something
});

可以用deferred来代替互斥量。这本质上与多个ajax使用场景相同。

互斥锁

var mutex = 2;

setTimeout(function() {
 callback();
}, 800);

setTimeout(function() {
 callback();
}, 500);

function callback() {
 if (--mutex === 0) {
  //run code
 }
}

递延

function timeout(x) {
 var dfd = jQuery.Deferred();
 setTimeout(function() {
  dfd.resolve();
 }, x);
 return dfd.promise();
}

jQuery.when(
timeout(800), timeout(500)).done(function() {
 // run code
});

当只使用Deferred作为互斥量时，要注意性能影响(http://jsperf.com/deferred-vs-mutex/2)。虽然Deferred提供的便利和额外的好处是值得的，但在实际(基于用户驱动的事件)使用中，性能影响不应该很明显。

您可以使用延迟对象来实现在webkit浏览器中工作良好的流动设计。Webkit浏览器将为窗口调整大小的每个像素触发调整大小事件，不像FF和IE只对每次调整大小触发一次事件。因此，您无法控制绑定到窗口调整大小事件的函数的执行顺序。这样就解决了问题:

var resizeQueue = new $.Deferred(); //new is optional but it sure is descriptive
resizeQueue.resolve();

function resizeAlgorithm() {
//some resize code here
}

$(window).resize(function() {
    resizeQueue.done(resizeAlgorithm);
});

这将序列化代码的执行，以便它按照您的意图执行。在将对象方法作为回调传递给deferred对象时，要当心陷阱。一旦这样的方法作为deferred的回调执行，'this'引用将被覆盖为对deferred对象的引用，并且不再引用该方法所属的对象。

ehyds的答案将不起作用，因为它缓存了响应数据。它应该缓存jqXHR，这也是一个Promise。 下面是正确的代码:

var cache = {};

function getData( val ){

    // return either the cached value or an
    // jqXHR object (which contains a promise)
    return cache[ val ] || $.ajax('/foo/', {
        data: { value: val },
        dataType: 'json',
        success: function(data, textStatus, jqXHR){
            cache[ val ] = jqXHR;
        }
    });
}

getData('foo').then(function(resp){
    // do something with the response, which may
    // or may not have been retreived using an
    // XHR request.
});

Julian d的答案是正确的，是一个更好的解决方案。

Another use that I've been putting to good purpose is fetching data from multiple sources. In the example below, I'm fetching multiple, independent JSON schema objects used in an existing application for validation between a client and a REST server. In this case, I don't want the browser-side application to start loading data before it has all the schemas loaded. $.when.apply().then() is perfect for this. Thank to Raynos for pointers on using then(fn1, fn2) to monitor for error conditions.

fetch_sources = function (schema_urls) {
    var fetch_one = function (url) {
            return $.ajax({
                url: url,
                data: {},
                contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                dataType: "json",
            });
        }
    return $.map(schema_urls, fetch_one);
}

var promises = fetch_sources(data['schemas']);
$.when.apply(null, promises).then(

function () {
    var schemas = $.map(arguments, function (a) {
        return a[0]
    });
    start_application(schemas);
}, function () {
    console.log("FAIL", this, arguments);
});