What is the difference between flatmap and switchmap in RxJava?

Question

The rxjava doc definition of switchmap is rather vague and it links to the same page as flatmap. What is the difference between the two operators?

Answer 1

Here is the one more - 101 line long example. That explains the thing for me.

Like was said: it gets the last observable (the slowest one if you will) and ignores the rest.

As a result:

Time | scheduler | state
----------------------------
0    | main      | Starting
84   | main      | Created
103  | main      | Subscribed
118  | Sched-C-0 | Going to emmit: A
119  | Sched-C-1 | Going to emmit: B
119  | Sched-C-0 | Sleep for 1 seconds for A
119  | Sched-C-1 | Sleep for 2 seconds for B
1123 | Sched-C-0 | Emitted (A) in 1000 milliseconds
2122 | Sched-C-1 | Emitted (B) in 2000 milliseconds
2128 | Sched-C-1 | Got B processed
2128 | Sched-C-1 | Completed

You see the A got ignored.