refCount
Make a ConnectableObservable
behave like a ordinary observable and automates the way
you can connect to it.
Parameters
There are no parameters.
Returns
MonoTypeOperatorFunction<T>
Description
Internally it counts the subscriptions to the observable and subscribes (only once) to the source if the number of subscriptions is larger than 0. If the number of subscriptions is smaller than 1, it unsubscribes from the source. This way you can make sure that everything before the published refCount has only a single subscription independently of the number of subscribers to the target observable.
Note that using the share
operator is exactly the same as using the publish operator
(making the observable hot) and the refCount operator in a sequence.
Example
In the following example there are two intervals turned into connectable observables by using the publish operator. The first one uses the refCount operator, the second one does not use it. You will notice that a connectable observable does nothing until you call its connect function.