# Source.asSubscriber

Integration with Reactive Streams, materializes into a @javadoc[Subscriber](java.util.concurrent.Flow.Subscriber).

@ref[Source operators](../index.md#source-operators)

## Signature

Scala
:   @@snip[JavaFlowSupport.scala](/akka-stream/src/main/scala-jdk-9/akka/stream/scaladsl/JavaFlowSupport.scala) { #asSubscriber }

Java
:   @@snip[JavaFlowSupport.java](/akka-docs/src/test/java-jdk9-only/jdocs/stream/operators/source/AsSubscriber.java) { #api }

## Description

If you want to create a @apidoc[Source] that gets its elements from another library that supports
[Reactive Streams](https://www.reactive-streams.org/), you can use `JavaFlowSupport.Source.asSubscriber`.
Each time this @apidoc[Source] is materialized, it produces a materialized value of type
@javadoc[java.util.concurrent.Flow.Subscriber](java.util.concurrent.Flow.Subscriber).
This @javadoc[Subscriber](java.util.concurrent.Flow.Subscriber) can be attached to a
[Reactive Streams](https://www.reactive-streams.org/) @javadoc[Publisher](java.util.concurrent.Flow.Publisher)
to populate it.

If the API you want to consume elements from provides a @javadoc[Publisher](java.util.concurrent.Flow.Publisher) instead of accepting a @javadoc[Subscriber](java.util.concurrent.Flow.Subscriber), see @ref[fromPublisher](fromPublisher.md).

@@@ note

For JDK 8 users: since @javadoc[java.util.concurrent.Flow](java.util.concurrent.Flow) was introduced in JDK version 9,
if you are still on version 8 you may use the [org.reactivestreams](https://github.com/reactive-streams/reactive-streams-jvm#reactive-streams) library with @apidoc[Source.asSubscriber](Source$) { scala="#asSubscriber[T]:akka.stream.scaladsl.Source[T,org.reactivestreams.Subscriber[T]]" java="#asSubscriber()" }.

@@@

## Example

Suppose we use a database client that supports [Reactive Streams](https://www.reactive-streams.org/),
we could create a @apidoc[Source] that queries the database for its rows. That @apidoc[Source] can then
be used for further processing, for example creating a @apidoc[Source] that contains the names of the
rows.

Note that since the database is queried for each materialization, the `rowSource` can be safely re-used.
Because both the database driver and Akka Streams support [Reactive Streams](https://www.reactive-streams.org/),
backpressure is applied throughout the stream, preventing us from running out of memory when the database
rows are consumed slower than they are produced by the database.

Scala
:  @@snip [AsSubscriber.scala](/akka-docs/src/test/scala-jdk9-only/docs/stream/operators/source/AsSubscriber.scala) { #imports #example }

Java
:  @@snip [AsSubscriber.java](/akka-docs/src/test/java-jdk9-only/jdocs/stream/operators/source/AsSubscriber.java) { #imports #example }
